


Smith and Jones

by written_notes



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M, K9 is a romantic robot dog, Luke is a genius, M/M, Santiago loves school, TARDIS envy, drunk!Luke is adorable, invasion of the very small cubes, matchmaker Doctor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-10 08:11:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3283220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/written_notes/pseuds/written_notes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the evolution of friendship between Luke Smith and Santiago Jones from Ealing to Oxford to all of time and space.<br/>or, what life is like when you're descended from a former companion of the Doctor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a friendly beginning

**Author's Note:**

> takes place after SJA series 4 ep 4 'Death of the Doctor'

Luke was exceedingly glad that the Doctor hadn’t actually died – not solely because his mother would have been absolutely devastated, but also because he owed the Doctor his life several times over and he liked the Gallifreyan. “But I can’t believe you guys had such a massive adventure without me!” He exclaimed over the webcam feed.

“It’s not like we deliberately left you out…” Clyde offered half-heartedly.

“And you got to meet the Doctor in his latest regeneration-”

“Who was pretty cute, by the way.” Rani attempted a lewd smile that came off rather silly instead.

“And Clyde got to visit another planet!” Luke marvelled.

“Yeah, I wish I’d gotten to go.” A deep new voice entered the conversation, but Luke could only see a light blue tee from his point of view. “Makes all my adventures around the world look like trips to the park in comparison.”

The confusion must have shown on Luke’s face, because Rani and Clyde both glanced backwards before realizing that their new friend’s face wasn’t in view of the webcam. “Oh, Luke, this is Santiago Jones.” Clyde tugged the blue tee downwards to reveal a handsome grinning boy with curly brown hair that looked rather untamed.

“This is Luke, Sarah Jane’s son.” Rani introduced him to Santiago, and Luke waved hesitantly. “He’s at Oxford University, so we update him about every case via webcam.”

“Nice to meet you, Santiago.” Luke said politely. “Thank you for helping to rescue my mum from the Shansheeth.”

Santiago winked. “No worries – I was trying to save my Gran as well, you know.”

“Oi, what about us?” Clyde butted in. “I was stranded on a weird planet by myself twice!”

“Children, it’s time for Jo and Santiago to leave!” Sarah Jane called from downstairs, and that was the end of the first time Luke met Santiago. He didn’t expect there to be a second time.

\--

The second time they met was a surprise, partially because no one had informed Luke that Santiago was staying over at Sarah Jane’s place for an undetermined period of time while his parents were protesting against orca captivity, and partially because Santiago was half naked when it occurred.

“I’m home!” Luke called out as he closed the front door behind him. Receiving no response, he guessed that his mum was out working and went up to his room. 

To his surprise, he heard the faint sound of someone showering in his bathroom. Before he had time to register who could be in there, the bathroom door was opening and he was met with the sight of a damp Santiago with a towel wrapped around his waist and looking equally bemused.

“Woah, I didn’t know anyone was visiting.” The curly-haired teen blurted out, before taking a closer look at the other guy, who looked ridiculously familiar.

But Luke’s superior brain immediately brought a name to the face (and failed to ignore the wet naked torso). “You’re Santiago Jones, aren’t you? The grandson of Jo Jones.” 

“Yeah…” Then it clicked as Santiago recalled the various photographs he’d seen in the house. “Of course, you must be Luke! Can’t believe I didn’t recognize you from all those photos! I’m terrible with names – I usually move around so much that I don’t get many second meetings with people.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” Luke replied and extended a friendly hand, which Santiago shook after a moment’s pause. “I didn’t realize you were visiting.”

“Yeah, Sarah Jane was really nice about letting me crash here for a bit while my parents are off protesting in another city nearby. She said it was alright for me to use your room.”

“Hm? Oh, of course.” Luke was a little distracted because the other boy was so lacking in the clothes department. It was a very nice specimen of the human body, he thought clinically. Then he realized what his words meant. “So you’ll be staying in my room…for the next few days?”

“Yeah, I-” Santiago looked at Luke’s expression and winced. “-I didn’t realize you’d be coming back and needing your room. Sorry! I’ll just move to the couch or something, goodness knows I’ve slept in far worse conditions, like the time we were in Peru for-”

“Oh, no, that’s okay.” Luke hastily interrupted him, although he was now really curious about what adventure this mysterious boy had had in Peru. “I’m only here for the weekend, then I’ve got to go back to Oxford, so I’m sure we can share the room for a couple of nights.”

“Thanks, mate.” Santiago grinned and finally seemed to remember his state of undress, moving over to pull on a shirt and pants. “It’s cool how you’re in university. What’s that like?”

“It’s nice.” Luke shrugged. “Nowhere near as exciting as Peru, I’m sure.”

A strangely wistful look came on Santiago’s face, transforming it from a merely handsome one to something that made Luke’s chest feel funny. “I don’t know about that.” He started explaining how he’d never regularly attended school in his life and was flatteringly eager to hear all about Luke’s school experience.

It was easy to become friends after that.

\--

Santiago was just on the phone with his mum, who’d apologetically told him that their protest rally was going to take longer than expected, damn these wildlife reserve representatives, and that it was too dangerous for him to come, so he should probably stay with Sarah Jane for a while more.

“Of course, mum. No, I understand.” He said, glad that she couldn’t see the disappointment on his face. It had been so difficult to arrange for his parents to be with him in the same country, but now it seemed that it made no difference if they weren’t going to be together.

Clyde, Rani and Luke shared glances of sympathy and tried not to look like they were eavesdropping while playing cards. Usually Luke beat them without even trying, thanks to his eidetic memory, but this time he was distracted by Santiago’s situation.

“Looks like I’ll be gracing you guys with my presence for another week or two.” Santiago grinned determinedly.

“We’re so honoured.” Clyde replied dryly, and the atmosphere was back to normal.

“Have you got any plans about what to do?” Luke asked. “Come to think of it, what were you doing for the past week?”

“My dad let him take part in some of our lessons as an exchange student.” Rani informed him. “I’ve never seen anyone so… excited about attending school and doing homework.”

“He keeps making me explain math, Luke. _Math_.” Clyde moaned. “I hate math.” He added unnecessarily. “I’m an artist, and art is in the soul.”

“Everything comes down to math, Clyde.” Luke felt the need to impress this upon his best friend.

“The teacher gave me this workbook full of exercises to do.” Santiago explained. “But I’m pretty hopeless. I think the only reason she hasn’t demoted me to the first grade is because Rani’s dad told her I learnt a different type of math in South America.”

“He’s wizard at modern history, geography and foreign languages, though.” Rani said encouragingly. 

“A bit strange, that. I didn’t even realize the teacher was speaking Spanish until someone pointed it out.” Santiago rubbed the back of his neck in confusion. “I’m not actually fluent.”

“It’s probably due to the TARDIS universal translation system.” Luke explained. “The TARDIS just automatically translates most comprehensible written and spoken languages into one understood by the people flying in it. However, it doesn’t always translate certain ancient or very remote languages. For example, Gallifreyan.”

“Does he always talk like this?” Santiago asked in amusement as Luke went a little pink.

“Of course. He’s a walking encyclopaedia with the combined intelligence of thousands of people.” Clyde rolled his eyes. “The only reason he didn’t go to Oxford by the time he was fourteen is because he was busy saving the world here.”

“Sorry.”

“Nah, I think it’s cute.” Santiago grinned at Luke, whose stomach did a queer flip.

“I can help you with the math if you’d like.” He offered nicely.

“Awesome, thanks!”

\--

“Was it difficult for you to go and live at Oxford without your mum?” Santiago asked. The two of them were sharing the bed for practical reasons, although Luke would be returning to Oxford the next morning and Santiago would be able to have it to himself again. It was funny how Santiago was a bit too tall for the bed, though.

Luke laughed. “I was so nervous thinking about it that I got nightmares. And that escalated to the Nightmare Man putting me into a wakeless sleep, though we managed to defeat him in the end.”

“Wow.” Santiago breathed in amazement. 

“If you hang around here long enough, you’ll start to have more and more adventures like that.” Luke smiled. “Things like these happen around Mum all the time. Although that might also be because she goes looking for suspicious events as part of her job.”

“Do you…” Santiago hesitated before deciding to go ahead with his question. “…do you ever wonder if, maybe one day, it’ll be too dangerous and she won’t come back?”

It wasn’t something Luke liked to think about very often. “Sometimes I worry.” He admitted. “Do you?”

“More often than I care to think about.” Santiago’s thoughts echoed his own. “Sometimes we go for months and months without speaking because they’re on a different continent in the rainforest with no means of communication. And part of me thinks: they could be dead, and I wouldn’t even know.”

“That’s terrible.” Luke said quietly, remembering the times he had been separated from his mum.

“Clyde and Rani told me that I should try to change that – get to spend more time with my parents. And at least we managed to spend Christmas together, and now we’re in the same country at the same time. But I can’t ask them to give up what they’re doing to have some boring, picket-fence life in the suburbs. No offence.”

“Maybe you could arrange to go to protests and rallies as a family unit.” Luke suggested. “And let them see how much you want to grow closer as a family and spend more time with them. I’m sure they’d be happy to do it because they love you.”

“I hope so.” Santiago sighed. “Thanks for the advice, Sleeping Beauty.”

\--

The next time he saw Santiago Jones was on television when the Jones family was interviewed about why they were protesting outside a climate change conference in Germany. Santiago answered the reporter’s questions in what appeared to be fluent German.

“This world needs protection, and we’re committed to doing that as a family.” The teenager smiled at his parents, who smiled back at him.

_Good for you, Santiago,_ Luke thought fondly as he turned back to finishing his astrophysics paper.

\--

The next time Santiago came to Ealing, London for a visit, he was informed that Luke’s seventeenth birthday was in a matter of days. Santiago was rather surprised that Luke was only just turning seventeen when he was already in university. But then he remembered that Luke was a genius, and it all kind of made sense.

He wasn’t sure what to get the birthday boy since he hadn’t much in the way of money, but Sarah Jane just told him not to be silly and that his presence would be enough. Santiago wanted to give Luke something nonetheless, and managed to find a souvenir from one of his travels and borrowed a bit of wrapping paper from Clyde to make it look presentable.

Luke came home from Oxford a couple of days before the party, and was pleased to see Santiago as a houseguest. “It’s good to see you again.” Luke smiled at Santiago, who was pleasantly surprised at how the other boy had grown even cuter than before.

“You too.”

“I think the last time I saw you on telly, you were at a protest in Germany with your parents.” Luke informed him excitedly. “What was that like?”

Santiago was only too happy to monopolize Luke’s attention by telling him all these grand stories his parents had decided to do their advocacy work together as a family and they had spent time on different continents, traveling in many dangerous and illegal ways to get to places, and met all sorts of interesting people along the way.

“I hope you don’t mind me crashing in your room again.” Santiago belatedly remembered to say. “Your mum made up a mattress for me there.”

“It’ll be like an extended sleepover.” Luke said cheerfully, failing to mention that there were probably other rooms that Santiago could actually stay in.

“I hope you don’t get nightmares.” Santiago idly commented without thinking, but noticed when Luke stiffened slightly. “What’s the matter?”

“I usually don’t dream.” The shorter boy explained slowly. “But the first time it happened was when the Nightmare Man invaded my mind.”

“What were they about?” Santiago asked hesitantly, afraid that he’d dredge up horrible memories for Luke, and yet morbidly curious about what had happened. 

“It preyed on my most deep-set fears at the time. I dreamt that Mum was glad to see me leave because she didn’t love me as her own son. That she only saw me as…” Luke shivered slightly, and Santiago felt like a tool for bringing such an expression onto Luke’s face.

“You don’t need to tell me anymore.” Santiago quickly stopped him. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.” Luke smiled sweetly. “I became stronger from that experience. Now I know with even more certainty that no matter what others may think, I am her son and she loves me, and this will always be home.”

It was perhaps at that moment when Santiago started falling for this boy, although he didn’t know it yet.

\--

Santiago hadn’t counted on the appearance of one Maria Jackson, who had flown over for a visit and to surprise Luke at his birthday party. She wasn’t as pretty as say, Rani, but there was an endearing fresh-faced quality about her, and the enthusiasm with which she talked to Sarah Jane, Clyde and Luke was almost infectious.

He could tell that the relationship between Luke and Maria ran deep, and wondered how on earth he could ever hope to have Luke’s attention with this childhood friend around. It confused him a little as to why he was so keen to have Luke talking to him in particular.

“Are you alright?” Rani slid into the seat next to him. 

“Just chilling here by myself.” Santiago shrugged nonchalantly. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt that little reunion over there.”

She nodded in understanding. “I know how you feel. It’s like I’d be intruding on some long-lost secret club.”

He glanced at her with both eyebrows raised. “You?”

“Yes, me!” She replied firmly. “When I first heard about Maria, I couldn’t help but feel like a replacement for the gap she left when she moved to America.”

“You could never just be someone’s replacement.” He said charmingly.

“Thanks. But it’s hard to compare to the girl who rescued Luke the day he was born.” Rani replied candidly. “It’s a good thing she’s a nice person, or it would be really easy to wish her out of my life.”

Santiago sighed as he watched Luke laugh at something Maria had said. Damn it all. “I think it’s time for more cake.”

\--

Because Santiago was clearly a masochist, he asked Luke to tell him about Maria and their history together as they were getting ready for bed. Luke happily began from how Maria had saved him from the Bubble Shock factory when he had first awoken. It was actually quite fascinating, because none of the others had told Santiago exactly how Luke was, in Clyde’s words, a “genetically-engineered boy genius”.

“Wait a minute. You were _grown_? Does that mean you don’t have a bellybutton?” He blurted out, momentarily forgetting about Maria.

“I don’t.” Luke nodded, and when it was clear that Santiago required visual proof, he obligingly lifted up his t-shirt to show that his abdomen was smoothly flat and navel-less.

“Woah, that’s wicked!” Santiago breathed in amazement, and couldn’t help but reach out a hand to touch it.

Luke shivered at the contact of rough fingers on smooth skin and stepped back before the odd feelings he was getting intensified. “Anyway, then we met Clyde at school…” He continued talking about his adventures during his first year of life with Maria and Clyde.

Just by listening to these stories, Santiago acutely felt that sharing such harrowing, life-saving experiences as the Bannerman Road team had was something that inevitably bound people together. It was similar to how he felt every time he went with his parents on a dangerous mission together and they came out alive, whether successful or not.

“Maria must miss saving the world with you all.” He finally commented.

“Well, she was initially having her own adventures in the USA, but…” Luke paused uncertainly. “I think she’s enjoying having a normal life now with only the occasional alien adventure. I mean, it gives her more time to spend with her dad and to form good friendships with people who don’t know anything about extra-terrestrial phenomena.”

“Huh.” For all that Santiago envied the Bannerman Road gang for always having a home to go to at the end of the day, he wouldn’t trade his exciting experiences for what most people deemed ‘a normal life’. And now that he’d met the Doctor and seen a glimpse of just how big the universe is, how could he ever go back to not wanting to see more and know more?

“Maria’s better at making friends than I am.” Luke mused. “I find it more difficult to talk to people who don’t know about the Doctor or aliens, or who aren’t at a similar level of intelligence-”

“Gee, thanks.” Santiago shot him a dry look.

“Sorry!” Luke automatically apologized, before noting the amused glint in Santiago’s eyes. “I rather enjoy university, though, because I get to work with people who are just as interested in physics as I am.” 

“I wish I could go to university for a bit. It sounds pretty cool.” Santiago said wistfully.

“Why don’t you?”

Santiago rolled his eyes. “Even if my family had the money, I wouldn’t be able to get the qualifications to enter. No formal schooling, remember? I’d probably fail everything anyway.”

“I’m sure Mr Smith could forge some paperwork to make it alright.” Luke referred to their alien supercomputer. “And if you chose courses that you already have knowledge in, I know you’re bright enough to catch up. You could be like one of those exchange students – they’re only required to pass all their courses.”

Santiago felt absurdly pleased at the other boy’s praise, and found himself grinning like an idiot.

“You know, if you’re free, you could come to Oxford with me and take a look around.” Luke suggested. “I know some people studying things like political science, modern history, or whatever piques your interest. And you might like to visit the Amnesty International group, the Environmental Law Discussion group…”

That actually sounded like a very tempting idea, and Santiago found himself agreeing, to Luke’s delight.

“You know, a sizable number of students have been paying attention to all the events that have been happening, like the alien invasions and the time the Daleks moved Earth into a different galaxy-”

“I remember that!” Santiago exclaimed. “When all those planets appeared in the sky! We managed to hide from the Daleks, and Gran said the Doctor was definitely working out a plan to save us.”

“He did!” Luke affirmed. “Mum was there when they destroyed the Dalek’s plan and used the TARDIS to fly the Earth back to our solar system. That’s the first time I ever saw the Doctor, though via Mr Smith’s screen, of course. Apparently he’s regenerated since, so the Doctor you met looked totally different.” There was a note of envy in his voice.

“When I was growing up, my Gran used to tell me the most amazing stories about her adventures with the Doctor.” The younger Jones smiled. “And I knew that I just had to meet him.”

“Mum sometimes tells us stories too – all the places she’s been, the evil beings she’s defeated…” Luke reminisced. “And the TARDIS! So much bigger on the inside!”

“I know!” It was slightly thrilling to have other people he could share such experiences with. Not even his parents or cousins could understand what it was like.

“You know, if he – the Doctor – asked you to travel with him, would you do it?” Luke asked thoughtfully. “Or even just for one grand adventure?”

Santiago hesitated. “I think…” Luke leaned forward, waiting for his answer. “…that one would be too many, and-”

“-a thousand would not be enough.” They echoed together.

\--

The look on Santiago’s face when he saw K9 Mark IV in Luke’s hostel room made Luke want to laugh.

“Greetings, Master Luke. Greetings, Master Santiago.” The metal dog said, and Santiago’s jaw nearly dropped. 

“Hi, K9.” He replied weakly. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Affirmative.”

“Do your other hall mates know about him?” Santiago turned to Luke, who shook his head.

“His technology originates from the year 5000, so I’d rather not anyone get their hands on him and start experimenting, or I might have to face an inquiry.”

“Fair enough.” Santiago agreed, and then they were off for a tour of the university, which Santiago thought had brilliant architecture, even if it was filled with heaps of high-achievers who would probably look down on him if they knew he’d spent his ‘high-school years’ travelling – often by illegal means – to various hippie communities, protest rallies, exploring rainforests and running away from the police rather than building portfolios and earning academic awards.

“Perhaps you should have gone to LSE instead.” Luke commented doubtfully. “I think their political science programme might be better than Oxford’s.”

“I’d hardly be able to tell anyway.” Santiago shrugged. “Is this your way of saying you regret bringing me along?”

Luke had gotten used to Santiago’s sense of humour by now and laughed. “Of course not. It’s twice as interesting with you here. Hardly anything interesting alien-wise ever happens at Oxford though, so I hope you weren’t expecting a bunch of the Slitheen on campus.”

“That is a disappointment.” Santiago joked. “I even armed myself with vinegar.”

Luke suddenly stopped walking and Santiago nearly bumped into him. “You wouldn’t destroy one of them unless you had no other option, right?”

“Well…” The other boy was rather taken aback at the question. “I dunno…Clyde and Rani told me that they’re never up to any good, and their plans usually involve our species being destroyed!”

“I guess that’s true, but we can’t carelessly go around murdering them just because they’re aliens. You wouldn’t shoot a human who was trying to destroy the planet if you had the option of, say, arresting him instead, right?”

“Of course not.” Santiago replied hotly. Even in all the protests he’d been to which had turned violent, he’d always tried to be peaceful and rather get arrested than seriously hurt someone. 

“Mum told me that the Doctor tried to save the madman who created all the Daleks even though he’d tried to destroy the Doctor that time when Earth got pulled out of the Milky Way.” Luke said soberly. “And he was really mad because the human biological metacrisis Doctor committed genocide by killing all the Daleks on the ship.”

Santiago didn’t exactly understand all those terms, but he knew what genocide was, and he got Luke’s point. “Okay. I promise that in the event we run into any hostile aliens, I won’t shoot them unless it’s life or death. I can’t vouch for anyone who’s got a gun pointed at you.”

Luke tried very hard not to blush.


	2. sometimes teachers really are monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing said ‘diversion’ quite like a food fight.

The problem with having a friend like Santiago Jones was that the boy was virtually not contactable most of the time. Even if his mother were to approve of ‘electricity-sucking devices that eschew face-to-face interaction for a cheap means of communication’, Santiago was never in one place for very long, and international roaming was expensive. The same went for internet use, although he did have an email address which he checked whenever he had access to a computer.

 

Nevertheless, Luke managed to get a few email updates from Santiago at random times in the year and of varying lengths. Sometimes it was just a one-liner from an airport computer saying that he was about to stowaway on a cargo plane from Mumbai, and sometimes it was a veritable newspaper article on how his family had been successful in protesting for rights of minority groups somewhere in South Africa.

 

The overwhelming sense that Luke got was that Santiago loved what he did and truly cared about all the causes he was working for, but that one part of him wanted a bit of stability like Sarah Jane’s gang had, and another part of him wished for an alien invasion he could take part in.

 

On his part, he answered Santiago’s questions about what adventures Sarah Jane was still up to back in Ealing, what his latest research paper was about, how Rani was enjoying her journalism course and how Clyde was faring at art college. Seemingly mundane stuff, but Santiago appeared to appreciate it.

 

Then Santiago finally sent an email asking if he could come by for a visit. Luke returned a positive reply, hoping that the other would see it in time.

 

\--

 

“Wasn’t Santiago also visiting here around the same time last year?” Clyde wondered.

 

“Yes, I suppose he was.” Sarah Jane answered distractedly as she flipped through her notes on her latest case involving a missing shopkeeper.

 

“Maybe he’s making it an annual visit.” Rani suggested.

 

“He did say he that Bannerman Road feels almost like a second home.” Luke said brightly. “Although I’m not too sure where his first home would be. Perhaps his grandparents’ home, since that’s where he tends to go in between the various protests around the world.”

 

“You seem really informed about his activities.” Rani’s eyes narrowed, her journalist instincts unconsciously kicking in.

 

“We keep in touch by email, just like I do with Maria.” Luke informed her, rather matter-of-factly. “It seems like this was just a good time for him to come back to London.”

 

“And isn’t it nice that he’ll still be around for your birthday?” Sarah Jane offered cheerfully, although she missed the mischievous looks shared by Clyde and Rani.

 

“Yes, what a happy coincidence, Lukey-boy.” Clyde grinned.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, the subtext went quite over Luke’s head.

 

\--

 

Luke was on his way back from the post office, having run a couple of errands for Sarah Jane. It was one of those simple tasks that he kind of missed doing now that he was hardly at home with his mother. Clyde often said he couldn’t understand why anyone would miss doing chores, no matter how easy the job.

 

He was just about to reach 13 Bannerman Road when he heard the sound of several dogs barking and heading in his direction, followed by a couple of people running behind them. The figure closer to the dogs barrelled towards him and nearly knocked him over. “Luke Smith!” The person said in a breathless gasp. “Hide me!”

 

A very bewildered Luke just stood still while a teenage girl who had been chasing after the dogs and the person who was using him as a makeshift shield reached them. “You idiot! You’d better help me catch them!”

 

“No dog deserves to be cooped up like that!” The boy whom Luke now realized was one Santiago Jones retorted, and Luke vaguely wondered whether Santiago had always been so tall. “They were practically begging to be set free.”

 

“That’s not for you to decide!” The girl was utterly red in the face from running and yelling. “I’m a hired dog-walker, and if-”

 

“You certainly weren’t _walking_ them.” Santiago interrupted with a huff. “More like chatting on the phone while they were suffering in that cage.”

 

“ _Cage_? It’s a van!”

 

“Same difference!”

 

The girl looked like she was contemplating murder, and Luke unconsciously moved to stand in between the two arguing teens. “If you don’t help me track them down, I’ll get in serious trouble from their owners, and I swear I’ll make you pay for their losses!”

 

“Okay, let’s all just calm down.” Luke put his hands up as non-threateningly as possible. “We’ll help you get those dogs back.”

 

“Luke!” Santiago looked utterly betrayed.

 

“She’s right, you can’t just go around releasing dogs into the neighbourhood. What if they got kidnapped, or hit by a car, or lost and starving?” Luke rationalized. “Their owners would be devastated. I know I’d be if I lost K9.” He added quietly.

 

“I… fine.” Santiago relented. “But I’m going to report you for animal cruelty.” He glared at the girl, who had the decency to look a little ashamed.

 

“Why don’t you two chase after them, and I’ll see if I can get some of my friends to help. Such as Mr Smith.” Luke said meaningfully as he took out his phone, and Santiago got the drift and started chasing after the dogs.

 

\--

 

“You certainly know how to make an entrance.” Luke laughed as they drove back to 13 Bannerman Road. Mr Smith had helped them locate the dogs and Luke had driven around to find them.

 

“Sorry for causing you all that trouble.” Santiago apologized. “I really didn’t mean to.”

 

“It was pretty fun.” Luke shrugged. “I feel like I’ve gotten a tiny sense of what your life has been like.”

 

“You have no idea.” Santiago grinned.

 

They saw Sarah Jane standing at the door with a vaguely surprised expression. “I didn’t know you were going to pick him up, Luke.”

 

“It was a bit of a coincidence, Mum.”

 

“Lucky for me, eh?” Santiago beamed. “It’s great to see you again, Sarah Jane! Gran sends her love and her thanks for letting me stay here.”

 

“It’s always good to have you here, Santiago.” Sarah Jane smiled and ruffled his curly hair, even though he was at least eight inches taller than her. “You’ve grown so much!”

 

Santiago couldn’t help but feel utterly welcome at the Smith residence. There was a certain warmth about Sarah Jane Smith that enveloped you and made you want to earn her good opinion and make her happy. His Gran had said that that was probably how Luke Smith had turned out to be such a good boy, implying of course, that Santiago was a bit of a pest in comparison.

 

“Jo sent me a message regarding you, actually.” Sarah continued, to Santiago’s interest. “She thought it might do you good to get a bit of formal education while you stay with us. Haresh Chandra has recommended a private school that takes in kids who were previously home-schooled, if you’re interested in trying the A Levels.”

 

Santiago blinked. Sure, he’d mentioned offhandedly to Gran that attending university looked rather interesting, but he’d never said anything about studying for the A Levels. Now, he wasn’t completely ignorant – he’d learned some math from Luke, science from his granddad, history and geography from his parents and other activists he’d met along the way – but taking a national examination sounded a little farfetched.

 

“That sounds great!” Luke enthused. “I know there are only a few months left to take them, but you’re bright and I can help you.” His smile faltered a little when the other boy made no reply. “That is… I mean, it’s completely up to you, and I suppose school will seem so boring in comparison to what you normally do, but-”

 

“Why not?” Santiago quirked a slight smile. “I was going to take a bit of a break anyway. And this will be good for me, I’m sure.”

 

\--

 

“Hey, what’s up?” Rani plopped down on the seat next to Santiago. “Homework?”

 

“Yup.” He showed her his worksheets. “It takes some getting used to.”

 

“Yeah, I bet it does. Are the teachers good?”

 

“They’re alright, I guess.” Santiago shrugged. “Not much different from the ones in your high school, although they probably think I’m the most ignorant student they’ve had.”

 

Rani wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that and settled for nodding.

 

“And I find it a bit regimented. We don’t even get a choice with what food to eat in the cafeteria!”

 

“That’s a bit odd.”

 

“Yeah, it’s part of some weird food scheme that’s supposed to promote learning.” Santiago rather looked like he didn’t believe in it. “But chips are chips, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t healthy.”

 

“Tell that to Clyde.”

 

\--

 

Luke frowned as he looked over Santiago’s math homework.

 

Santiago bit his lip. “Is it really wrong? I know I tend to be careless, and some of this new stuff kind of boggles the mind-”

 

“It’s not that.” Luke frowned even more. “It’s absolutely correct.”

 

“Really?” Santiago perked up visibly. “Wicked! Thanks, Luke!” He clapped the other boy’s shoulder and took the papers, heading back to his room.

 

Luke twirled a pen around in consternation. Even though he had been the one who was most confident in Santiago’s ability to learn, it was still a little too remarkable that the other boy had managed to catch up on about eight years’ worth of mathematics in less than eight weeks.

 

Come to think of it, why was Santiago studying math anyway? It wasn’t like he wanted to become an engineer or anything along those lines. Luke shook his head in exasperation at his wandering thoughts. The point was, unless Santiago was cheating (which Luke refused to believe) or had some untapped genius potential (which seemed rather improbable), this was all very strange.

 

\--

 

“So you’re saying that Santiago is performing at an extremely advanced level and you’re worried there’s something going on?”

 

It sounded a little silly when she put it like that, but Luke nodded anyway. “I think normal sixth-formers who’ve undergone formal education might be able to do this kind of work, but not someone who’s hardly been to school at all. The last time he visited Park Vale with Clani, he was having difficulty with _geometry_ , Mum.”

 

“Has it occurred to you that perhaps he’s not only intelligent, but has been receiving very good tutoring at the school?” Sarah Jane pointed out.

 

“I…they’d have to be extremely good teachers.” Luke conceded. “And it’s not like math’s the only subject he has to manage – he’s also doing government and politics, history and geography.”

 

“Look, I’m quite busy on my current case, but why don’t you follow Santiago to the tutoring centre sometime when you’re free?” She suggested. “Perhaps you’ll find out there’s something going on, or perhaps you’ll realize that it’s all quite benign.”

 

“Alright.”

 

“Don’t ignore your journalist instincts, Luke.” Sarah Jane smiled. “After all, you got them from one of the best.”

 

\--

 

“I thought you have exams to study for.” Santiago commented, although he was quite pleased to have Luke come along with him.

 

“Oh, well, not too many exams.” Luke replied absently. “Some of my grades come from smaller assessments, individual and group projects, essays…”

 

“We’ve got projects too.” Santiago grumbled. “We’re forced to sit in a computer lab and code this programme. I mean, I know it doesn’t count towards A Levels, but apparently it’ll look good on my university application.”

 

Luke paused in his steps. “I didn’t know you knew how to write code.”

 

“Well, I didn’t, but they made me learn.” Santiago shrugged. “It was pretty easy, but I much prefer history and politics.”

 

Luke spent the rest of the day observing Santiago’s classes. He was surprised at how most of the students appeared to be performing at a level that was ridiculously above expectations. Santiago was probably one of the underperformers in his class, and he would likely ace the A Levels at the rate he was going.

 

It all seemed rather overwhelming, and when Luke had a chat with Santiago’s government and politics tutor, the tutor also expressed some surprise that the kids here were so excessively knowledgeable. “Normal students usually aren’t able to give you the exact measurements of Troy in cubits.”

 

When Luke casually mentioned this to Santiago, the taller boy wasn’t really able to offer an opinion. “I just assumed that everyone here knows a lot more than me because they’ve all attended school longer than I have. I’m still getting used to doing homework – rather like a seven year-old.”

 

It was a little painful for Luke to hear Santiago speak like he had absolutely no self-esteem, even though he’d said it very rationally. “I’m kind of hungry.” He changed the subject.

 

“It’s a bit odd having a fixed lunchtime.” Santiago commented. “But they give you free lunches here. The chips are pretty tasty, though positively dripping with oil.”

 

Luke disagreed; the chips tasted rather rubbish to him, but then, he’d been created for the purpose of marketing a drink to the 2% of the population that didn’t care for the taste. However, what he’d been more interested in was how one of the kids in Santiago’s class who wasn’t anywhere as ‘gifted’ as the others was actually allergic to the chips and couldn’t have them.

 

“Could you create a diversion while I go and check something out in the kitchens?” He whispered to Santiago, who looked pretty intrigued. “I’ll explain when we get home.”

 

Santiago was dying to know what Luke was on about, but respected the other boy and complied. Nothing said ‘diversion’ quite like a food fight.

 

\--

 

“Oh my goodness.” Sarah Jane exclaimed when she heard Luke’s report of what he’d found in the kitchens. “I encountered a similar situation with the Doctor about a year before you were born. Did you bring back a sample?”

 

Naturally, he had, and a quick analysis revealed that it was indeed Krillitane oil, just like the situation all those years ago.

 

Santiago’s jaw dropped as he realized what exactly he’d been eating for the past couple of months. “Is that why I’ve been able to do all my homework?” He asked quietly.

 

Luke turned around with a feeling of dread in his chest. The way Santiago was trying to look nonchalant but failing made Luke want to hug him and make him feel better.

 

“Look, we need to get this sorted out. I’ll do some research and figure out which of the teaching staff or kitchen staff might be Krillitanes.” Sarah Jane’s tone became business-like, dampening the awkwardness in the atmosphere.

 

“Well, I’m not eating those chips anymore.” Santiago declared.

 

“They probably won’t harm you, actually.” Sarah Jane informed him while typing away at her computer. “None of the children in the other high school with the Krillitane suffered any lasting side-effects from the oil. It acted as a sort of lubricant for the brain to increase its function, and that wore off after a short while.”

 

“How do you know it won’t turn me into a mindless puppet?” Santiago challenged. “Now that I think about it, they’ve been making us all participate in that computer coding thing, and yet when I leave that computer lab, I can never really recall what I’ve been doing.”

 

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Luke demanded.

 

“I don’t know!” Santiago looked a little taken aback. “It just never really occurred to me to think about it.”

 

“Then your task is to go and find out what it is they’ve got you children coding.” Sarah Jane decided.

 

\--

 

Sarah Jane managed to find information about how the school’s curriculum had changed when they had recruited a new academic coordinator, who had in turn added a couple of teachers and kitchen staff to the team.

 

Santiago had stopped taking the chips in an attempt to remain in control of his mind when he sat in the computer lab, but all he could grasp was that the Krillitane had the students working on deriving solutions to help the Krillitane overcome the faults in their current technology.

 

 

Luke went back to Oxford and brought K9 back just in case they needed him to fend off the Krillitane. Then the three of them broke into the school grounds one night with the help of her sonic lipstick, and managed to collect a decent amount of Krillitane oil to use against the aliens if necessary. They had also accidentally spotted one of the Krillitane in their true form, confirming everything that they’d suspected.

 

Sarah Jane chose to approach the Krillitane leader in his office, and Luke and Santiago had insisted on being there to watch her back, armed with bottles and water-guns of the oil.

 

“We mean no harm to the children.” The leader, who had previously been ‘Mr Truman’ to Santiago, said with a beatific smile.

 

“You’ve turned us into your personal zombies!” Santiago shot back.

 

“We just meant to harness their wonderful brain power and imagination to help us fix our energy crisis.” He said.

 

“Yes, well, robbing children of their free will in order to be your labourers isn’t right no matter how you’ve treated them.” Sarah Jane said firmly. “Now I suggest you release them, or I will have to get very nasty with you.”

 

“And what exactly do you plan to do about it?” His smile was no longer kindly, and Luke clutched his bottle more firmly. “Tell the children’s parents? They’ll think you’re crazy.”

 

“I’m giving you your last warning.” She insisted. “Or we will have to stop you.”

 

“How do you expect to stop me when you humans are so…fragile?” And with that, he morphed into his natural Krillitane form – a grotesque bat-like creature with fangs.

 

Santiago yelled in horror and splashed some Krillitane oil on the bat, which screamed in protest but wasn’t anywhere close to dying. “I thought you said this would work!”

 

“It’s supposed to!” Sarah Jane insisted. “Run!” They wrenched the door open and began running down the corridor. “Maybe they’re more vulnerable when they’re in their human form!”

 

“Well, what are we going to do?” Santiago panicked as they continued running.

 

“They’re like bats!” Luke had an epiphany. “We could make some sort of loud noise to disturb it! Like a radio, or a loud mobile phone tune, or-”

 

Santiago spied the fire alarm box and promptly broke the glass with his elbow, setting off a shrill fire alarm that sent the bat shrieking in agony.

 

“Good thinking!” Sarah Jane complimented him.

 

But then it was soon joined by two more of the creatures and three in human form, and the human ones were less affected by the noise.

 

“Look, you need to leave this school!” Luke insisted. “Go and solve your own problems without resorting to mind-control and violence!”

 

“Stupid boy.” One of the kitchen staff growled. “We would have used that technology to take over the human population anyway. Those children’s minds are too valuable to us!” Another one disabled the fire alarm by bashing a hole in the wall and ripping the wires apart, to Santiago and Luke’s horror.

 

Sarah Jane tossed some of the Krillitane oil at the ones in human form, causing them to scream out in pain as their skin started to dissolve. The bat-like Krillitane who were no longer incapacitated by the fire alarm began chasing after them with fangs bared.

 

The three of them ran for dear life until they reached the cafeteria where they had left K9. “K9, protect us!” Sarah Jane cried out.

 

“Commence defence mode! Laser activation!” K9 trilled as he began shooting laser beams at the flying aliens.

 

One of them avoided a blast and swooped down towards Luke with its terrible claws. Santiago whipped out his Super Soaker and sent jet after jet of Krillitane oil at the alien, which finally gave in and crumpled to the floor. They did the same to the remaining two, and Sarah Jane called her contacts at UNIT to clean up the mess.

 

“I don’t know what I’m going to do about my exams now.” Santiago commented. “Now that I know it was only the oil that helped me get through the curriculum, I might as well forget about university.”

 

“Don’t be like that!” Luke scolded him, to his surprise. “You’re not stupid! You’re not even ignorant anymore!”

 

Santiago blinked, at a loss for words. “But…how-”

 

“I’ll tutor you day and night if that’s what it takes.” Luke vowed. “And I will not have you giving up on yourself before you’ve even had a chance to sit the exams.”

 

“Was he always this fierce?” Santiago asked Sarah Jane in a mock-whisper.

 

“No,” She admitted, “but when he is, I find it best to go along with him.”

 

\--

 

“This is really good.” Sarah Jane enthused as she looked at Santiago’s certificate. “Considering you only had, what, three months of intensive learning?”

 

Santiago shrugged, trying not to look too pleased. His mother had come to support him on results day, although his dad was still chained to an oil rig somewhere in America and couldn’t be there. “I’m so proud of you!” Mrs Jones hugged her tall son.

 

“You probably did better than Clyde.” Rani sniggered.

 

“Oi!” The art student in question gaped. “I’d get an A in history too if Mrs Pittman was more like the Joneses and less like a Krillitane!”

 

“Yeah, but Luke tutored you as well, and you still did worse.” She grinned, but stopped teasing when she saw how disgruntled he was. “It’s okay, you’re still our favourite artist.”

 

“Luke tutored Santiago way more than he tutored me.” Clyde grumbled.

 

This was absolutely true, although Luke would have reasonably pointed out that Santiago needed a lot more tutoring in the first place. Even so, he was rather caught up with being hugged by a thankful Santiago, and had no presence of mind to reply Clyde.

 

\--

 

“Hey.” Luke approached Santiago in the attic where the other boy had been sitting on the sofa and staring up into the night sky. “How are you holding up?”

 

“Pretty good.” Santiago murmured, barely glancing back at him. “Mum just wanted to be sure that I was sure about the whole university thing before leaving to join Dad.”

 

“I brought you some hot chocolate.” Luke offered, and Santiago took the mug with a nod of thanks as Luke sat down next to him.

 

“My mum told me that Gran wanted her grandchildren to know that she never really expected all of us to go down the same paths that she has. It actually surprised her that so many of us joined in the protests around the world for worthy causes. I guess she just wants us to be doing whatever makes us happy.”

 

Luke smiled at that. He could only imagine how nice it might be to have a grandmother like Jo Jones.

 

“And I’ll admit that it’ll take some getting used to, but part of why I wanted to be in England is because the Doctor seems to come here more often than other parts of Earth. I know it’s unrealistic, but I just have this hope that one day I’ll see him again.” Santiago looked out of the window, as if hoping to see a blue police box materializing on Bannerman Road.

 

“The chance of the Doctor meeting the same human more than once is likely to be extremely low unless they have some link to him.” Luke mused as he ran through probabilities in his brain, and Santiago bit his lip. “However, we’re related to two of the Doctor’s companions, so if we look at the rate of encounters with the Doctor multiplied by-”

 

He was cut off by Santiago covering his mouth with a large hand. “For once, could you perhaps stop calculating and just…dream?”

 

Luke nodded mutely and Santiago removed his hand, and the two of them continued to sip their chocolate as thoughts of alien adventure with the Doctor filled their minds.


	3. the Doctor visits Oxford

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS drew them like moths to a flame. “So what do you say, boys?” The Doctor smiled invitingly at them. “One ride, non-refundable?"

“You need more plants in this room.” Santiago complained as he flopped onto Luke’s bed.

“Oxygen levels are adequate, Master Santiago.” K9 reported, misunderstanding his sentiment.

“I mean, your room is just so…functional and white and unfriendly. Hardly any signs of life if you discount the robot dog.”

“I am modelled after man’s best friend, Master.” K9 objected.

“If it’s so unfriendly, why are you here so often?” Luke asked as he continued typing on his laptop.

Luke had a way of saying things that made Santiago unsure whether he was being sarcastic or genuinely didn’t get what was going on. Clyde had explained to Santiago how long it had taken Luke to understand what made jokes funny, how to use the right slang, and how to tell when people didn’t want to hear him go all ‘technical’ on them.

“I like K9.” Santiago pronounced, and rubbed the robot dog on his head affectionately. If anyone had told his younger self that he’d one day be treating a metal contraption like a real, live, breathing pet, he’d have told them they were insane. He only imagined that K9 must have been a greater source of friendship to Luke, who had been quite a bit younger than the other students in his course.

“Thank you, Master.”

“Stop changing the subject, Luke Smith.” He shook his head. “I am going to make your room more…green.”

“As long as you don’t start growing marijuana or other illicit drugs in my room, I don’t mind.” Luke replied. “Don’t you have homework to do?”

“Ah, the difference between an arts degree and a science degree.” Santiago sighed happily. He spotted a campus-produced newspaper and began flipping through it, until a tiny article on page seven caught his attention. “Weird. This article says some students have recently claimed to have witnessed a giant wasp flying around campus.”

“I’m not sure _The Oxford Student_ always prints accurate information.” Luke said doubtfully.

Santiago checked the name at the bottom of the article. “Hey, I know the author – he’s in one of my classes. He doesn’t strike me as the sort to make up fake news, especially news that sounds utterly ridiculous. He reminds me of Rani, actually.”

Luke swivelled around on his chair, now distracted from his essay. “Are you suggesting we investigate this?”

Santiago grinned slowly, a wicked smile that made Luke’s stomach feel all fluttery. “K9, do you know of any aliens that look like giant wasps?”

\--

They arranged to meet the author of the article – one Nicholas Benton – who informed them that the supposed giant wasp had been seen by a couple of girls when they’d been cutting through campus on their way home from the pub, and again by a student who’d been up late at night doing research in the lab.

“Did the wasp actually hurt them?” Luke asked.

“I don’t think the two girls remained long enough to find out.” Nicholas said dryly. “But the PhD student said he thought the wasp looked like it was searching for something, although I don’t see how that makes any sense.”

“To be fair, a giant wasp hardly makes much sense either.” Santiago pointed out, since Nicholas had qualified that by “giant”, they were talking about a man-sized insect. 

“When did these events occur exactly?” Luke continued.

“Well, the two girls saw the wasp at around midnight on Monday two weeks ago, and the bloke saw it last Monday at 1:30am.” Nicholas checked his notebook. “You two aren’t thinking of finding the wasp, are you?”

“No, that sounds rather dangerous.” Santiago lied easily before Luke accidentally revealed their intentions. “We’ll let you know if we hear any other news though.”

\--

Luke hung up his mobile phone. “That was Dr Caldwell,” He informed Santiago, referring to his research supervisor. “Apparently this visiting professor is interested in my research, and Dr Caldwell is asking me to go back to the lab.” 

“Go on, you nerd.” Santiago plucked the paper with the contacts they’d wheedled out of Benton earlier out of Luke’s hand. “I’ll go interrogate the witnesses.”

“I don’t know how much we’ll learn from the two girls. It sounded like they were a little drunk at the time, and it was two weeks ago.” Luke looked worried.

“Then I’ll just have to jog their memory.” Santiago said firmly before giving Luke a silly wink. “Plus, how can they resist this handsome face?” He pointed to his face, earning a nervous laugh from Luke.

Luke sighed as Santiago sauntered off, hating the feeling of insecurity that plagued him every time he was reminded just how attractive Santiago could be to others. He ignored it and ran off to the physics lab where his supervisor was waiting for him. 

“There you are, Luke.” Dr Caldwell beamed and beckoned him over. “This is Professor John Smith, visiting from Harvard.”

“Good afternoon, Professor.” Luke said politely, thinking that the man in front of him looked a little young to be a full professor, although his bowtie and tweed jacket with elbow patches looked about right. He had a rather long chin and a benign expression on his face. “I’m Luke Smith, one of the undergraduate physics students here.” 

“Ah, a fellow Smith. Lovely to meet you!” The professor shook his hand enthusiastically. “Dr Cauldron here was just telling me about your research on transcendental dimensions, and I must say it sounds fascinating.”

Luke resisted the urge to correct the professor’s mistake and nodded. “I’m interested in how transcendental dimensions might be achieved by engineering so that we might one day be able to construct objects with interiors of different dimensions that will allow greater storage.”

“The theory is all a little much for my brain, but Luke here is one of our brightest.” Dr Caldwell said cheerfully.

“Imagine how a larger cube could ‘fit’ into a smaller cube if the larger one was further away, and yet immediately accessible.” Luke tried to mime with his hands, to the professor’s growing delight, although his supervisor merely shook his head and left the two of them to talk.

“And how did you manage to come up with such a theory?” The professor asked.

Luke couldn’t very well tell him that he’d been in a TARDIS before, and fell back on his usual cover story. “I read the Chronicles of Narnia when I was younger, and I was fascinated by how in the second book, there’s a cupboard that contains an entire country, and in the last book, there’s a stable which is bigger on the inside.”

The professor’s grin widened at the last four words. “Brilliant.”

Luke didn’t think so, since his idea wasn’t original and humans were so woefully behind in technology compared to several other planets.

“Your mother must be very proud of you.”

Luke shrugged uncertainly. “I think my mother tends to be proud of me regardless of what I achieve, Professor.”

“Of course she is!” The professor beamed.

Then Luke’s phone rang, and he saw that it was Santiago ringing. “If you’ll excuse me, Professor.” He said apologetically and picked up the call. “Hey, Santiago.” He didn’t notice the professor’s interest in the name.

“That’s great. Can we talk about the wasp later? I’m still at the lab. Yeah, I’ll go meet the other guy with you later. See you.” He hung up and realized the professor was staring at him. “Sorry about that.”

“What’s this about a wasp, then?”

\--

It was rather thrilling to be on campus late at night with Santiago as they lay in wait around the area where all the witnesses had said they remembered seeing the wasp. One of the girls had given Santiago a rough hand-drawn map of the location and scribbled her number on the back. Santiago hadn’t even noticed it until Luke pointed it out. “I don’t think we’ll need it, since Benton gave us the other girl’s number.” He’d said, and tossed the paper somewhere, to Luke’s good cheer.

“I hope this wasp turns out to be an Earth wasp which has just gone wrong because of some alien device.” Santiago commented. “Then we can fix it and let it go back to living its life as it should.”

“It didn’t sound hostile, based on what they told us.” Luke mused. “But if it was due to some alien device, wouldn’t that have affected an entire hive, and not just one wasp?”

The two of them imagined a hive of giant wasps and shuddered. Santiago snuck a hand around and gently poked Luke’s other shoulder. Luke jerked in shock and whirled around expecting to see a wasp sting in his face, only to realize that Santiago was silently shaking with laughter next to him. “Hey! That’s not funny.” He folded his arms crossly.

“Sorry.” Santiago didn’t look sorry at all. “I promise to be serious when it actually tries to attack you. Look, I even brought wasp-killer.” He dug into his bag and produced a spray bottle.

“You bought _insecticide_?” Luke found it hard to believe that Santiago would actually buy such a poisonous product.

“Don’t be silly, I Googled how to make homemade wasp-killer from peppermint oil.” Santiago smirked.

“Hush, I hear something.” Luke placed a hand on his arm to quiet him, not noticing how Santiago shivered slightly, and he pointed at a figure in the distance. “Wait a minute. That looks like the professor who was at my lab last Friday!”

“He looks like he’s got a green torchlight.” Santiago squinted. “Hang on, I’ve seen that before, haven’t I?” He got up and began walking towards the man, forcing Luke to follow him. “Excuse me.”

The man stood up and stared at the two of them, his face clearly identifiable under the streetlamp light. “Professor Smith?” Luke goggled. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh my God.” Santiago began flapping his arms like an excited bird. “It’s you!”

“Who?” Luke looked at his friend in confusion.

“It’s you, isn’t it?” The man began to smile as Santiago did a little dance on the spot. “It’s the Doctor!”

“ _The Doctor?_ ” Luke gaped as the man whom he’d thought was Professor John Smith grinned at him.

“Nice to see you again, Luke. You too, Santiago.”

“But- but what are you doing here in _Oxford_?” Luke felt utterly flabbergasted. Nothing ever happened in Oxford, so in all the wide universe with a trillion things to see, the last place he expected the Doctor to ever stop by was boring old Oxford University.

“Sometimes I like to pop by physics research laboratories and see what they’re working on. It’s usually quite amusing.” The Doctor chuckled. “No offense, Luke.”

Luke shrugged helplessly. “We are rather primitive.”

“But you humans – always asking questions, inventing new things, approaching the world with curiosity!” The Doctor patted Luke on the shoulder. “And look at you two, investigating a giant wasp!”

“Do you know what it is, sir?” Santiago asked excitedly.

“I suppose we’ll find out.” The Doctor mused as he turned on his sonic screwdriver and resumed scanning around the area for residue. Before he could finish scanning, they heard an unmistakable buzzing sound and slowly turned around to see a giant wasp in the air.

The Doctor quickly scanned it and checked his screwdriver. “Aha, a vespiform! What are you doing outside of the Silfrax Galaxy?”

“Vespiform.” Luke shared a glance with Santiago. “That’s what we thought it might be.”

But the vespiform seemed to notice them and started flying away. “Well, don’t just stand there!” The Doctor gave them a look. “Spit spot!”

\--

After tracking down the vespiform the Doctor tried talking to it, and to the boys’ surprise, it morphed into a man who looked to be in his late twenties. “You know what I am.” He said in a surprised tone.

“I’ve seen your kind before, yes.” The Doctor nodded. “What are you doing here on Earth?”

“I am what you humans might call an anthropologist.” He explained. “I came to Earth to observe human behaviour and sociology for the purposes of compiling information for our databanks back home.”

“Cool.” Santiago was rather impressed by this, although Luke wasn’t too sure. “Are you masquerading as a student here or…”

“You can call me John Smith, undergraduate sociology student.” He said pleasantly, and the Doctor rolled his eyes at the unimaginative name.

“So why have you been flying around in your natural form at that area late on Monday nights?” Luke asked suspiciously.

“Well, it gets tiring being in this human form sometimes.” He spread his arms wide. “Think of it like my weekly jaunt in my own skin. And I’m a creature of habit, so I follow the same route every Monday.”

“You know, one of the benefits of being as old as I am is that you tend to be able to tell when people are lying to you.” The Doctor flipped his sonic screwdriver in the air and caught it again, the pleasant smile still on his face. “Why don’t you try again?”

It took a while to get the truth out of the vespiform, who finally admitted that he’d lost his telepathic recorder device somewhere around that area, and had been searching for it in his natural form since the telepathic connection he had to it would be stronger then.

The Doctor then offered to help him search for it in the day time, and the vespiform looked a little sceptical that he’d be able to find it, but wasn’t about to stop them. Santiago nudged Luke and commented how it must be nice to have a friendly alien encounter for once.

\--

“Well, that was a bit of a surprise.” The Doctor commented as he stared at the space that had previously been occupied by the vespiform ship. “Vespiforms plotting against one another. A plot to control the minds of the human race with the telepathic recorders. The vespiform’s human love caught in the mix. Still, we managed to fix everything in the end, didn’t we?”

“Yeah.” Luke and Santiago let out relieved laughs as they followed him. It had been an exciting few days of investigating and running around trying to save the human race from being turned into vespiform slaves.

The TARDIS drew them like moths to a flame. “So what do you say, boys?” The Doctor smiled invitingly at them. “One ride, non-refundable? Plenty of room in this old girl for a couple…of boys.”

Luke’s hand reached out to the blue police box involuntarily, and Santiago looked like a starving man who had just been offered a feast. 

“I’ve dreamed of this ever since I was a little boy and my Gran told me bedtime stories of her adventures with the amazing Doctor.” Santiago breathed. “But I don’t think one ride would be enough, Doctor. I’d want to keep going forever.”

“But we can’t, can we?” Luke said sadly. “You pick up traveling companions, and then inevitably, at some point you drop them off, and they almost never see you again. Because we could spend our whole lives with you, but you can’t spend all of yours with us.” 

“And so you leave, and keep moving forward because you can’t look back.” Santiago echoed the Doctor’s words to his grandmother.

The Doctor’s smile shuttered, and he observed these two boys who were young in age but older in understanding. They knew second-hand from Sarah Jane and Jo what it meant to be the human traveling companion of a Time-Lord. They weren’t like the others who had to be persuaded to come on an adventure with him. They yearned to do so but could understand how difficult it would be to go back to mundane everyday life after seeing the cosmos.

“You’re right.” He said simply.

“Although…” Santiago’s resolve was slowly but surely crumbling. “…the chance to see another planet, in another time, Luke.” His voice took on a begging tone, and Luke looked less like an old soul and more like the young man he actually was.

“I think the two of you are slightly different from the other passengers I’ve invited on board.” The Doctor patted the wooden frame of the door. “Because you know that I’m not asking you to become a lifelong traveling companion.”

“Unfortunately.” Santiago muttered.

“And you know that traveling with me has its hazards and will not leave you unchanged.” The Doctor continued, though it sounded more like a warning. “So I’m willing to believe that the two of you could come on a trip with me and still go back to your lives saving the Earth from where you are.”

 _This is what he does,_ Luke thought, _dangles the whole of time and space in front of little Earth-bound humans and who can resist?_ He looked at Santiago, whose expression became more hopeful. 

“What do you say, Smith and Jones?”

\-- 

“It’s changed.” Luke ran curious fingers over the railings and console. “Does it change with every regeneration?” Santiago had excitedly gone running around the staircases and exploring.

“It changes whenever I want it to change.” The Doctor replied while fiddling with the knobs and dials. “Here, why don’t you make yourself useful and hold that lever.”

“OH MY GOD THERE’S A HELTER SKELTER IN HERE!”

Luke had never flown in the TARDIS before, only looked at its interior that one time in Sarah Jane’s attic. So he ignored Santiago’s happy exclamations and instead relished the feel of the TARDIS traveling through the Vortex. 

“You look like you’re deep in thought.”

“I was just wondering, or more like wishing, really, that I could build a TARDIS.” Luke sighed. 

“I’ve had to build them in my time. Something you pick up on Gallifrey.” The Doctor shrugged. “Although the last time I had to do it I only had time to build the console without the shell. Bit dangerous, traveling like that.”

Santiago rushed back in, all rosy-cheeked and wide-eyed with excitement. “So, where are we going, Doctor?”

The Doctor grinned. “Well, there’s this planet about 15 billion light years away from Earth; its inhabitants are rather boring – purple, humanoid, a little scaly – although it does get several intergalactic visitors who come every 173 years when the stars in that system align together and form this beautiful harmony. They say it’s like listening to the brightest orchestra in the universe.”

“Wow.” The boys gasped in amazement.

“And maybe if we have a bit of spare time-” The Doctor chuckled at his little joke, “we might drop by Kataa Flo Ko to see their diamond coral reefs, or perhaps the lightning skies of Cotter Paluni’s world. Alternatively, if you boys want to see more intergalactic species, we could go to a planet like Zog and meet lots of them.”

“I have an essay due on Friday which I haven’t quite started yet.” Santiago suddenly realised. “You’ll bring us back with enough time for me to write it, right?”

“My dear boy, I could bring you back to the actual historical event you’re meant to be researching.”

“Wicked.”

\--

“This rather seems like the kind of place a person would bring someone on a date.” Santiago whispered as he listened to the stars. “Have you ever done so?” The question was out of his mouth before he realised what he’d just asked the thousand-year-old Time Lord.

But the Doctor seemed rather relaxed and obligingly answered, “I brought my future wife to a different planet on a night when you can see more stars in the sky than anywhere in the universe – bright enough to read a book by, although no one would be reading a book with that to watch instead.”

“I don’t know, Luke might.” Santiago chuckled. “He’s always reading something and memorising it.” He glanced at the other boy, who was currently listening to the harmony of the stars as well, although he was silently counting the number of stars he could see from their nice vantage point.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, I’m always telling him to slow down and appreciate life.” Santiago shook his head in exasperated fondness. “But I guess sometimes for him, analysing something is almost the same as viewing it with wonder. It’s just that his brain works too quickly.”

They sat there and listened to the celestial music for half a minute before the Doctor asked him a question. “So, how long have you been in love with him?”

“ _What?_ ” Santiago jerked in shock at the question and gaped at the Doctor like a goldfish. “I’m not- that is to say- I’ve just got a small crush, that’s all.”

“Oh, no need to be shy, Santiago.” The Doctor chuckled, causing the poor boy to sputter helplessly.

\--

Luke tried not to laugh at the utterly disgruntled look on Santiago’s face as the latter attempted to wipe the tomato sauce stain off his shirt.

“It’s ruined now.” Santiago declared hopelessly.

“Of course it isn’t. Come on, I’ll soak it for you.” Luke stuck out a waiting hand. It took Santiago a couple of seconds to comprehend it before shrugging out of his shirt and obediently handing it over. Luke headed to his bathroom. “All we need is some cold water, acetic acid and the surfactant in dishwashing liquid…”

Santiago tuned out the scientific explanation of why that combination would force the sauce molecules to break up and detach themselves from his shirt, or whatever it was that Luke was saying. He resumed eating his dinner when there was a knock at the door. “Want me to get that for you?”

“Yes, thanks.”

Santiago went over and opened the door, revealing one of Luke’s neighbours, who looked rather surprised to see him. What was his name? David?

“Uh, is Luke there?” The guy asked hesitantly, trying not to gawk at the half-naked Santiago.

“Yeah, but he’s a little tied up at the moment.” Santiago grinned, knowing that Luke was probably up to his forearms in soapy water by now. Plus, it was the middle of dinner and he didn’t like having his meals interrupted. He wondered why the guy (Danny?) had suddenly gone red. “I can go get him if it’s urgent.”

“Oh, no, it’s not urgent! I didn’t mean to bother you two.” The guy (maybe it was Dennis?) definitely looked uncomfortable now, like he wanted to leave. Perhaps he was in a bit of a hurry.

“Well, I can take a message.” Santiago offered, feeling a little bad for practically shooing this poor guy away. 

“That’s alright, I’ll just text him. Sorry for bothering you!” The guy (Don, perhaps) awkwardly nodded and quickly strode back down the corridor. Santiago raised a brow and shut the door.

“Who was it?” Luke asked as he came out of the bathroom.

“One of your neighbours, I believe.” Santiago shrugged and sat back down. “He was acting a little strange and sort of…fled without leaving a message. He said he’d text you.”

Luke puzzled over this for a while as they continued eating, before setting his cutlery down with a clink. “I’m not very well-versed in societal norms, but perhaps he felt uncomfortable because you answered the door while shirtless. He might come from a culture unused to a lack of proper attire.”

“Perhaps.” Santiago considered this for a moment. “He wouldn’t last very long in one of the tribes I met in North America.”

\--

The summer holidays were a great time of catching up with Sarah Jane – who had lots of exciting stories about her alien adventures around Ealing – and with Clyde and Rani, who had finally announced that they were officially dating.

“You mean you weren’t dating already?” Santiago had blurted out in confusion, causing Sarah Jane and Luke to laugh.

“How’s Mr Chandra feeling about this?” Luke had asked interestedly.

“Please, he loves me.” Clyde had boasted.

“Dad actually wasn’t surprised at all.” Rani had informed them. “He said he spent the last few years just waiting for the penny to drop.”

Although Clani was the latest news, everyone wanted to hear Luke and Santiago give a detailed account of their short trip with the Doctor, especially Sarah Jane. It was quite amusing to hear them tell it, because Luke went into a wonderful amount of detail of the places they went to, while Santiago wanted to butt in with the exciting bits where they’d met cool alien races, hostile forces, and how the Doctor had had to use his sonic screwdriver more than a few times.

“Oh, we took some photos and videos, didn’t we?” Luke recalled, and dug out his phone. “Although they really can’t do justice to the places we visited.” Clyde and Rani immediately dove for the phone and struggled over it for a bit.

“The Doctor wouldn’t let us take a picture with him.” Santiago said rather apologetically to Sarah Jane.

“That’s alright.” She smiled. “I’ve met that regeneration before, and you boys passed on that message from him, and that’s enough for me.” Santiago wasn’t sure if she meant it, but took it at face value. “I’m also interested in the fact that you encountered these…vespiform?”

“Yeah, we did.” Luke nodded excitedly. “K9 has the data if you want to read it.”

“I thought you said nothing happens at Oxford.” Sarah Jane pointed out.

“Maybe fate has determined that the Smiths should encounter aliens no matter where they go and save the world.” Santiago suggested cheekily.

“Luke doesn’t believe in fate.” Clyde interjected, although his eyes never left the phone screen.

“No, but I have a theory that wherever the TARDIS goes, it leaves behind a bit of artron energy like an energy signature, that attracts other galactic species to it, however consciously or unconsciously.” Luke began rambling. “And since all passengers of the TARDIS have residual artron energy, such as you, Mum, Ealing becomes a place of high alien activity. And this activity only began in Oxford after Santiago arrived.”

“Wow, I feel so special.” Santiago remarked cheerfully. “Although now that we’ve both got that energy with us, there might be more alien activity in Oxford soon. Woohoo!”

\--

“Was it difficult to leave the Doctor?” Rani asked curiously. She knew how much Santiago had always wanted to meet the Doctor, and that he’d occasionally mentioned it after their adventure with the Shansheeth.

“Yeah, it kind of was.” Santiago got a faraway look on his face. “But you know what I think? I think it was easier for us because we have something waiting for us when we return. And we have people whom we can talk to about these experiences. It’s not lonely.”

Rani thought she understood what he was getting at. Knowing she had a family to go home to at the end of the day meant a lot to her. “I guess if Clyde and I got to travel with him, we’d be okay going home because we’re together.” It sounded incredibly cheesy, but there it was.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did you know that Clyde…” He gestured helplessly with his hands.

“Was ‘the one’?” She prompted, and he nodded sheepishly. “We’ve been through so much together, and I always knew he’d be there for me whenever I need him. There was this time we were the only two humans left on Earth because we were grounded by the Judoon, and I thought, if there was any one person I would choose to be stuck with, it would be him.”

Santiago nodded in awe. “And that’s when you knew?”

“Oh, it took a while after that to progress from being best friends to being more than friends.” She mused. “But really, it never could have been anyone else. Don’t tell him I said that, though. His head is big enough as it is.”

He chuckled and crossed his heart in mock acquiescence.

“So,” Rani leaned in conspiratorially, “is there any special someone in your life? Someone you want to be stuck on an empty planet with?” 

Santiago paused. On one hand, he wasn’t used to sharing such personal stuff with people. On the other hand, Rani was the type of person who wouldn’t stop picking at a thread until she got answers. “I’m still single, nosey parker. Whom I like is my own business.”

She pouted. “Fine.”

Then Luke poked his head around the door. “Hey guys, I’m afraid Mum and I ruined dinner, so we might have to buy takeout instead. Do you have any preferences?”

Rani happened to glance at Santiago midway through that pronouncement and was a little stunned by how his face had lit up at Luke’s arrival. And judging by Luke’s fond smile as Santiago made a lame joke about how they’d struggled to survive in Oxford without Clyde’s cooking, Rani’s suspicions about the two seemed justified.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case it was confusing, the scene with shirtless!Santiago was essentially Luke's neighbour mistakenly assuming he had interrupted Luke and Santiago doing something physical/kinky. obviously even the people around them think of them as a couple.


	4. one-sided attraction and misunderstandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “If you two have quite finished being silly,” The Doctor drawled, and the two boys jerked in surprise, “we’ve got a planet to save.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> references to the year of the slow invasion of the cubes (Doctor Who, Series 7 Episode 4)

Over the next year, Santiago came to regard Luke as the best friend he’d never had when he was growing up around the world. The two of them hung out whenever they had time, even though they had gotten busier. They would try to have meals together, where Luke would update Santiago on his research progress while the latter tried to keep up with the physics, and Santiago would describe the latest activist group event happening on campus while Luke promised to attend whatever he could.

And of course, in their spare time, they would follow up on any paranormal leads they found in the area. Some inevitably turned out to be little more than rumour-mongering and mistaken accounts, but a few actually were alien in nature. K9 faithfully kept a log of all their data and was even willing to communicate with Mr Smith to transfer the information, although it was often accompanied by snide remarks on both ends.

Santiago knew that Clyde was Luke’s best mate and longest friend, and he wasn’t trying to replace the artistic young man. But he also knew that he had some unique experiences with Luke, and was convinced that they had become incredibly close as they shared lives. There were moments when he felt an indescribable _something_ between them and wondered if Luke saw him as more than just a platonic friend.

But then there were times when Luke would say or do something that betrayed his unnatural origins and brain, making Santiago wonder if he was even capable of feeling romantic towards another person – such as when he failed to understand the motivations behind art and poetry, questioned things in romantic comedies which normal people took for granted, had to be taught what flirting actually was, and just generally gave off an air of an old professor stuck in a young man’s body.

It was occasionally amusing, but more frustrating than anything else. Santiago had been asked out by quite a number of people he’d met at the many events he attended, and there was usually a moment of hesitation (why not?) before he declined because he couldn’t get his stupid best friend out of his mind. Luke Smith had ruined him, he thought grumpily.

And this was the guy who had actually said, “I know snogging is _meant_ to be nice – Clyde said so – but I really don’t see how it can possibly be enjoyable. It’s a process which increases the transmission of infection, reduces oxygen entry and, to be honest, looks very strange and messy.”

Santiago had wanted to bang his head on a wall when he heard that statement. He’d mumbled something about sex hormones and the basic need of any species to procreate, which Luke had accepted after a little contemplation.

“Have you kissed anyone before?” Luke then asked suddenly.

Santiago was so stunned he choked on the fruit juice he’d been sipping, and Luke quickly provided him with tissues. “Um…well, yeah.”

“Really?” Luke’s eyes widened. “When did this happen? Who did you kiss? What was it like?”

Santiago went horribly pink with embarrassment, and usually a kind person like Luke would have let it go, but his scientific curiosity had gotten the better of him and he continued staring at his friend expectantly. “My first one was with this guy I met in America years ago.” He muttered, feeling like a 14-year-old girl at a sleepover confessing to her best friends. “We were both at a rally for environmental awareness, and it was an impulsive thing. It was alright, I guess.”

Luke looked a little unimpressed by this vague description, but then realised something. “So you’ve had more than one kiss, then.”

“I am _not_ going to describe them all for you, Luke.” Santiago declared fervently.

“I suppose the logical way to gather data would be to experience this first-hand with a reasonable sample size.” Luke pondered. “But I don’t think going around and asking several people to kiss me would be feasible.”

Santiago choked. “I… wouldn’t advise it, no.”

And he’d thought that that was the end of the matter, until one day when it was approaching exam time, and Luke mentioned that he’d had his first kiss recently. Santiago immediately jerked up from his position on Luke’s bed, his notes flying everywhere from the sudden movement. “WHAT?”

Luke blinked, and proceeded to collect Santiago’s notes for him. “You know that end-of-semester party you made us go to last night?” He sat on the bed next to Santiago, who gulped and nodded, not liking where this was going.

“One of the guys there – I think you know him – started talking to me even though I didn’t know him well at all.” Luke explained. “And I guess the conversation was going fine, when he suddenly asked me whether I was dating anybody. I said no, and then he just leaned in and kissed me.” He sounded utterly bewildered.

“Who was it?” Santiago gritted out. “I’m going to kill him!”

His friend looked rather taken aback at the mention of violence. “It’s okay, he didn’t hurt me. It was mostly just strange. And after I told him so, he left.”

Santiago didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of what he had said. “Strange?”

Luke wrinkled his nose. “Yes. Perhaps Rani’s right in saying you need to care for the person for it to be enjoyable.”

“I suppose so.” Santiago agreed, even though he knew it to be untrue. 

“I don’t suppose…” Luke hesitated, and Santiago raised a brow. “…that you could maybe try it on me? Just for comparison’s sake.”

Santiago’s eyes widened and he actually felt his heart skip a beat. “I…” He realised how close they were sitting together, and how pretty Luke’s eyes were, of all things.

“It doesn’t have to mean anything, if you’re concerned.” Luke added helpfully. “Think of it as participating in a friend’s research experiment. It’s like when you filled out that survey for Sanjay.”

Santiago had been prepared to shove Luke away and forget about it, but hearing Luke talk about kissing in such a clinical manner somehow made him want to prove his friend wrong, and before he realised what he was doing, he leaned forward and kissed Luke on the mouth.

It only lasted a second before he quickly pulled back, ignoring the sudden increase in his heart rate as Luke blinked owlishly at him, looking a little dazed. “There you go.” Santiago said gruffly. “Nothing special about it.” He picked up his notes and pretended to resume studying.

Luke’s racing heart and tingling lips told another story, but he decided to keep his observations to himself.

\--

During the summer holidays, there was a sudden invasion of millions of small black cubes everywhere in the world. They were fairly nondescript, evidently inactive, and indestructible. 

“How do you know they’re indestructible?” Rani queried.

“Well, we’ve tried boiling them, burning them, driving over them,” Santiago ticked off his fingers, “chipping at them, dropping them from the attic…”

“So what do we do?” Clyde asked in exasperation. “These things are obviously alien, and by now they’re in everyone’s homes. Including ours! What if they attack us while we’re asleep?”

“Maybe we should get rid of as many as we can.” Sarah Jane mused. “Mr Smith isn’t able to tell us anything about them either.”

“Maybe UNIT’s experiments on them could tell us more.” Luke suggested, earning a curious look from his mother.

“How do you know that?”

Luke went a little pink. “They might have approached me earlier to ask me to join them and mentioned the cubes.”

Sarah Jane and the others stared at him in surprise. “And you didn’t think to tell us about this sooner?”

“I was going to tell you, but I was so caught up trying to figure out the cubes that it slipped my mind. Honestly, Mum.” Luke explained quickly. “And regardless of their offer, I still have to finish my doctorate first.”

Santiago breathed a little easier knowing that Luke was still going to be at Oxford with him. It might be terribly self-absorbed of him to be most relieved by that, but there it was.

“Oh, stop showing off.” Clyde rolled his eyes, and Santiago belatedly realised he was juggling three of the cubes and dropped them promptly.

\--

Luke blinked as another young man who was definitely not Santiago opened the door to Santiago’s dorm room. He noted that the small room was occupied by a group of Santiago’s classmates, who looked like they were having a good time eating, chatting and playing with their iPads.

“Hello, is Santiago here?” He asked politely while trying to remember the name of the person in front of him.

“Yep.” The other student turned around. “Jones!”

Santiago made his way over to the door and grinned. “Hey, Luke! What’s up? We’ve got pizza, if you want to join us.” He didn’t notice the guy next to him cringe slightly.

“Uh, okay.” Luke would really prefer to talk to Santiago alone, but he didn’t want to refuse his friend’s invitation. “I just wanted to let you know that I got a new system update from Mr Smith for our laptops, so I can install it for you now.”

“Cool.” Santiago ushered Luke to his desk and got him a plate with a few slices of pizza on it. Luke began explaining the benefits of the new update, although he couldn’t go into too much detail since Santiago’s friends were just there.

Santiago got up to use the bathroom, and Luke could practically feel the gazes of Santiago’s friends on the back of his head. He swivelled the chair around. “Sorry for not introducing myself. I’m Luke Smith.” He introduced himself politely.

They murmured their names in turn, and the one who’d answered the door asked him what he studied.

“I’ve recently begun my PhD in astrophysics.” Luke said, and he saw their eyes widen slightly. When it seemed like they didn’t have anything to add to the conversation, he explained that he was installing a program update with some technical jargon thrown in so that they wouldn’t ask further questions, and turned his chair back to face the laptop.

Now, Luke was an odd contradiction of physiology – he had a poor sense of balance and smell, but excellent hand-eye coordination and hearing. As it was, he could hear their whispers despite the music coming from one of the iPads and the sounds of a game being played on another one. 

“What a nerd.”

“Didn’t know Jones had such dorky friends.”

Luke swallowed uncomfortably and chewed on a slice of pizza while pretending not to hear anything. The moment Santiago emerged from the adjoining bathroom, Luke stood up and made an excuse about having a lot of research to catch up on. 

“Oh, alright then. Don’t forget to eat.” Santiago shoved the plate of pizza into his hands. “Seriously, if I didn’t feed you, you’d probably spend all day in the lab and survive on nothing but profound thoughts and calculations, you nerd.”

Luke flinched even though he knew Santiago was only teasing, and quickly fled.

\--

Santiago was in the midst of running away from a couple of Slitheen, heartily wishing he had a bottle of vinegar on him, when he heard a familiar wheezing noise and his heart nearly stopped. To his delight, a familiar blue police box materialized just a little way ahead, and he changed directions abruptly, running towards the TARDIS and knocking furiously on the door.

“Why, hello, Santiago!” The Doctor grinned, seemingly ignoring Santiago’s shortness of breath and dishevelled hair. 

“Doctor…Slitheen…chasing me…” Santiago huffed out as he bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for air.

“Slitheen? Marvellous!” The Doctor clapped his hands in glee. “Where’s Luke?”

“In the lab, as usual.” Santiago turned around and spotted the two hulking green aliens in the distance. “Doctor, I’m kind of in a situation here!”

“Right, of course! Sorry.” The Doctor smoothly placed himself between Santiago and the two Slitheen. “Now, why are you two chasing this young friend of mine?”

“He destroyed our matter compressor!” The taller alien shrieked. “And now you will pay!”

“They were planning on turning the Earth into a huge diamond to sell!” Santiago exclaimed defensively. “So I destroyed it and ran for my life.”

“Well, I’d say that was pretty well done.” The Doctor agreed and turned to the Slitheen. “Now for you two, I advise you to return to Raxacoricofallapatorius before I’m forced to report you to the Shadow Proclamation.”

“Hah! You know very well that if we set foot on our home planet again, nothing else awaits us but execution.” One of them snorted.

“I’d almost forgotten that.” The Doctor paused. “Then take your ship and leave this planet – go somewhere else where the Judoon won’t bother to hunt you down. Trust me when I say that this planet is protected, and that if you persist in trying to destroy it, I will stop you…permanently.” His facial expression was pleasant but his tone was like silk-covered steel.

When the two Slitheen looked at each other hesitantly, the Doctor added, “I would really prefer not to have to kill anyone today.” It sent shivers down Santiago’s spine to hear him say such a thing, and apparently it worked on the two of them, because they turned tail and began running back to where their ship was hidden.

“Sometimes I forget how many aliens have been killed in the process of saving Earth.” Santiago mused, almost unaware that he was speaking aloud. “It’s easier to forget especially when they don’t look human, but it’s still killing.”

“It’s war, and there are always casualties in war.” The Doctor said bluntly, looking inexplicably old for a moment before he seemed to forget it and changed the topic. “Where’s Luke?”

“In the lab.” Santiago was pretty sure he’d said this earlier. “We don’t come as a set, you know.”

“Of course you do, don’t be silly. You’re Smith and Jones.” The Doctor ignored him and went back into the TARDIS. “Come on.”

Santiago had to explain to the Doctor that Luke was pretty busy with his PhD thesis, writing journal articles and investigating the mysterious cubes that had appeared a few months ago. So since the start of the semester, Santiago hadn’t spent as much time with him, and had actually accidentally stumbled upon those two Slitheen rather than gone sleuthing as he had done with Luke in the past.

“Ah, the cubes.” The Doctor grimaced. “No development reported on any of the Earth news channels.”

“We’ve got a few of them with us. K9 is ready to detect any activity from them, while Luke keeps thinking of new experiments to test on them.” Santiago continued. “I think we should just chuck them somewhere where they can’t hurt us, but Luke insists that he’s going to figure them out.”

“Good thinking, both of you.” The Doctor entered some coordinates into the TARDIS computer. “However, I think a break would be good. Perhaps a visit to Mars, or King Arthur’s court, or to the year 20,000. What do you say?”

Santiago beamed. “I’m in!” Then his face fell a little. “I’m not sure if Luke will be okay with dropping everything…”

“Of course he will, you’ll see.”

“Actually, don’t you have…a regular companion?” Santiago ventured hesitantly, hoping to God that he wasn’t about to prevent himself from another adventure. “Like Gran was, or Sarah Jane. Gran mentioned that you’d had a married couple travelling with you when we first met you a few years ago.”

“Ah, the Ponds. Yes, well, they’re busy with boring home life for now, so I’ve decided to bring you two with me for a bit.” The Doctor grinned. “Always nice to have a couple on board.”

Santiago wasn’t sure whether the Doctor was confused or deliberately being cheeky. “Luke and I aren’t a couple, you know. We don’t even spend that much time together nowadays.” He added quietly.

“Why not?”

“Well, he’s so busy with all his science research-” Santiago made a gesture that showed how all the astrophysics just flew over his head, “-and I don’t think he’d appreciate me interrupting all the important things he’s doing to talk about some stupid protest rally I went to. And then he’d waste a lot of time trying to explain all his research to me, but I’m too dumb to understand most of it anyway.”

“Santiago Jones, this is no time to wallow in your inadequacy.” The Doctor admonished him as he strode towards the door. “Luke’s a smart boy, which means he appreciates the friends in his life.”

“He’s got plenty of friends who have the same interests as him-” Santiago said weakly.

The Doctor flung the door open and beckoned to an excited Luke. “Come on, Smith! Time for an adventure!”

“Oh, wow!” Santiago heard Luke’s voice. “But- oh, I can’t-” His heart sank a little.

“Of course you can.” The Doctor waved a hand expansively.

“-can’t leave without Santiago. I’ll just call him-”

“Just get in, Luke!” The Doctor hustled the young man into the TARDIS, and Luke hung up his mobile phone when he saw Santiago sheepishly standing next to the control panel.

“The Doctor saved me from a pair of Slitheen.” Santiago said by way of explanation, but he was grinning because at least now he knew Luke’s first thought had been to call him.

“You’re not hurt, right?” Luke asked anxiously, looking over for any signs of injury.

“’Course he isn’t.” The Doctor butted in, a little weary of the tension he could feel between the two. “Now, where shall we go?”

\--

“So, how have you been? I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve talked.” Santiago supplied. It might seem strange to be catching up while they were locked up in a dungeon, but he supposed now was as good a time as any.

“I’ve been good. Better than this.” Luke joked weakly, gesturing to their chains, and Santiago gave a small smile in return. “I didn’t think that red alien was serious about locking us up.”

Santiago’s smile faltered. “That was my fault. I can’t believe I was so stupid. I’m sorry you’re stuck travelling through space and time with such an idiot.”

“Don’t say that.” Luke shook his head.

“If it was just you and the Doctor, I’m sure you wouldn’t get into scrapes like this.” Santiago sighed. “You might as well replace me with K9 – he’d be way more useful.”

Luke couldn’t understand why Santiago was saying such uncharacteristically depressing things. “I never said you were dumb or not useful. Nobody thinks that about you.”

“Isn’t that why you’ve been avoiding me this past month?” Santiago finally asked. “I know it must be hard for you to have to keep using baby language to explain things to me, and I figured you just found it easier to be around people who understood you better.” His voice got softer as he talked, trailing off to almost a whisper by the end.

Luke stared at him in shock. “Of course not! I- I thought _you_ wouldn’t want to be seen with _me_ because-” He suddenly stopped.

“What? Why?” Santiago felt really confused now.

“-because I’m such a nerd compared to your other friends. They all think so.” Luke admitted in a small voice. “I’ve spent my whole life being so different from other people. When Clyde first met me he was struck by how uncool I was, and I know…it can’t be easy being friends with me in public.”

“That’s not true.” Santiago denied hotly. “You’re a genius! Your friends think I’m an idiot in comparison, don’t they? Every time I visited you in the lab I could tell they were all wondering why you bothered to be friends with someone like me who doesn’t even understand why f = ma.” 

“If you two have quite finished being silly,” The Doctor drawled, and the two boys jerked in surprise, “we’ve got a planet to save.”

\--

Luke ran for his life and dashed into the TARDIS, almost flinging himself onto Santiago as the doors shut behind them, shielding them from the explosion they had narrowly escaped from as the Doctor flew the TARDIS away.

Then Luke couldn’t help himself and began to laugh, which inevitably led to Santiago laughing as well, looking rather ridiculous sprawled on the floor with Luke on top of him. “Ha… did I hurt you?” Luke asked between gasps of laughter.

“Hardly.” Santiago grinned up at him. “I can’t believe we made it out of there alive!”

The Doctor muttered something about having more faith in him, but went unnoticed by them. 

“We were all brilliant.” Luke concluded happily as he beamed down at Santiago, the adrenaline still rushing through his veins. Then it was as if they both suddenly realised how close they were, and there was a charged moment as they stared at each other’s eyes before Santiago cleared his throat and they scrambled to their feet.

“You know, if you’re tired you can just go and have a sleep.” The Doctor suggested, earning grateful looks from the young men. He gestured vaguely. “Go down that corridor, take a left, past the library, then a right, and it’s the second door on the left. They’re _bunk beds_.” 

Luke nodded and Santiago decided to follow him rather than try to remember those directions. The silence between them was uncomfortable and Luke suddenly broke it by saying, “I’m sorry for avoiding you this past month. It was really just me feeling insecure and comparing myself to your friends when I should have been honest with you.”

“Considering how your tech skills just saved those aliens from turning into mindless zombies, I really don’t think you need to compare yourself to anyone.” Santiago grinned fondly. “But you weren’t the only one feeling insecure. I was just as much an idiot as you were and never feeling like I could measure up to your intelligence.”

“You convinced that commander to order his men to put down their laser blasters and help us.” Luke pointed out. “That was pretty amazing. I think we complement each other, actually.” He added shyly, not admitting just how appealing he had found his friend in that victorious moment.

“Smith and Jones for the win.” Santiago chuckled as they entered the room. “Dibs on the top bunk.”

\--

It had been a rather hectic week for Luke. 

Firstly, his supervisor had suddenly demanded that he submit his latest draft for a journal article submission that was supposed to be due two weeks later. Then he’d been persuaded to participate in a debate on the ethics of extra-terrestrial engagement, which he’d had to prepare for without referring to his intergalactic travels at all. UNIT had then sent him an unnecessarily long piece of documentation regarding what he was (not) allowed to discuss in the debate, while also pushing him for more answers regarding the cubes. 

Finally, his mother had informed him that she was coming up to Oxford to visit him for a day. Luke loved his mother, but she couldn’t have picked a worse time to come and visit. He groaned when he recalled the state of his room, as he ran up the stairs in his dorm.

He saw Santiago leaning against the corridor wall with his arms folded casually, looking the very picture of ease and the total opposite of what Luke was feeling in that moment. Santiago brightened up when he saw Luke. “Just thought I’d drop by early before your mum comes- are you alright?” He stopped and asked when he saw how flustered Luke looked.

“I- of course.” Luke replied distractedly as he unlocked the door and hurried in.

Santiago took in the mess and whistled. He glanced at his watch and figured that they had less than an hour before Sarah Jane was due to arrive for lunch. Luke looked like he hadn’t had enough sleep and had just run over from the lab. Wordlessly, he began picking up strewn clothes and either folding them or condemning them to the laundry basket.

“What are you doing?” Luke blinked, rather adorably confused.

Santiago raised a brow. “Cleaning up before Sarah Jane gets here. I’ve lived with you guys long enough to know that she hates your room being messy.”

“You don’t have to.” Luke protested weakly but Santiago ignored him and continued. 

“I’m sure you’ve got other things to do, like prepare for that debate or edit your journal article draft.” Santiago tossed over his shoulder, surprisingly aware of Luke’s to-do list. “Go on.” 

With that, Luke sat down at his desk and began typing away at his laptop. After about five minutes, he found himself nodding off and his nose was dangerously close to the keys.

Santiago sighed and went over to his friend. “Hey.” He tapped his shoulder and Luke jerked up. “I think you need a power nap.” He half-carried the lighter young man and deposited him on his bed which Santiago had just cleared.

“But-”

“I’ll wake you up in twenty minutes.” Santiago assured him and Luke finally gave in and dozed off. Meanwhile, Santiago felt a little bit like a housewife as he washed crockery, hung up clothes and tried to put books and bits of paper in some semblance of order. 

He noticed an email from UNIT to Luke on the latter’s laptop inquiring about his progress with the cubes. He could see that Luke had begun a reply saying that he hadn’t found anything new, which Santiago knew to be true. He debated for a moment before impulsively finishing the email for Luke – adding his name to the end and informing UNIT that they would be promptly informed of any new observations, so there was no need to send constant emails.

Then he went back to the bed and knelt down to wake Luke up. As he shook his shoulder gently, Luke’s eyelids fluttered open and he blinked drowsily with an unfocused gaze. Santiago involuntarily ran a thumb over the other’s smooth cheek and felt this overwhelming urge to wake him up in a far more intimate way than their friendship allowed.

“Hey.” Luke smiled sleepily and sat up as Santiago hurriedly withdrew his hand. “Wow, you really tidied everything!” He gaped as he turned left and right to stare at the now clean room.

“Well, I can’t let you get scolded by Sarah Jane.” Santiago grinned and ruffled Luke’s hair. “Obviously she knows you need someone to take of you. Actually, I’ll just chuck this out before she gets here.” He’d already separated the recyclables from the regular trash and left the room with two bags.

Luke felt rather spoilt sitting on his bed and having such a clean room. An inexplicable sense of warmth filled his chest at how sweet Santiago was being. “It’s amazing. I was so stressed earlier on, but now it’s like I’m absolutely fine. I wonder why.” He mused aloud.

K9 moved forward. “Master, I detect you are experiencing a heightened emotional state with increased levels of serotonin and dopamine.”

It took Luke a few seconds to grasp what K9 was implying. “Are you saying that I’m _in love_?”

“Affirmative.”

“That can’t be right.” Luke frowned. K9 wasn’t making any sense. What did a robot dog know about falling in love anyway?

Then Santiago returned to his room and Luke felt that same warmth and pleasant sensation all over as his friend smiled at him. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Time to get up.” Santiago strode over and pulled Luke up off the bed, and Luke’s hands tingled at the contact. His eyes widened slightly. Perhaps K9 was on to something.

\--

Luke sat awkwardly on a barstool, replying emails on his tablet as he waited for Santiago to arrive. It had been his brilliant idea to try and get to know some of Santiago’s friends to expand Luke’s pathetically small social circle and to prevent any more misunderstandings between them.

“Hey.” Another young man had decided to occupy the seat next to him and was now smiling at him.

“Hello.” Luke nodded politely, wondering if it would be rude to return to his tablet.

“I haven’t seen you around here before.” The young man seemed intent on continuing this conversation. “My name’s Hector, by the way. Like the Trojan.”

“I’m Luke, and I’ve never been here.” Luke admitted, vaguely wondering how often Hector must frequent the pub to recognise which customers were regular.

“Well, Luke, can I buy you a drink?”

Luke was rather surprised by this show of kindness. “That’s…very nice of you. Thanks!”

Hector smiled and ordered a beer for Luke before the latter could inform him that he didn’t drink alcohol. Somehow, Hector had moved nearer to Luke and Luke felt that his space was being invaded even as Hector slid the drink across the table to him.

“Luke!” He looked up gratefully as Santiago strode towards him with a slight frown on his face. “There you are.”

“I’ve been waiting here for you.” Luke said rather unnecessarily.

Santiago’s gaze flickered to Hector and he shifted closer to Luke in a possessive manner. “Well, we’ve got a table over there.”

“Okay.” Luke kept the tablet in his bag and slid off the barstool. “It was nice meeting you, Hector.” He smiled politely and took the drink off the counter with him. Santiago shot Hector a glare before ushering Luke with one hand on his elbow.

“What’s with the beer? And what kind of a name is ‘Hector’, anyway?” Santiago muttered uncharitably.

“It’s probably as unique as ‘Santiago’.” Luke surmised cheekily. “And he was being friendly and offered to treat me to a drink.”

Santiago stared at Luke. “Don’t you know what it means when people offer to buy you drinks?”

Luke looked confused. “Um, that they’re welcoming me to the pub? He knew that it’s my first time here.”

Santiago wasn’t sure whether to laugh or face-palm. “Right. Didn’t you tell him you don’t drink?”

“He didn’t really ask me before ordering it, and I thought it would be rude to refuse.” Luke sighed. “It was really rather presumptive of him.”

“Oh. Then I hope you don’t think I was too presumptive when I ordered fish and chips for you.” Santiago made a face.

“No, but you know exactly what I want, so that’s alright.” Luke waved it off as they reached the table.

Santiago’s friends were fairly easy to get along with, although Luke felt nervous about still appearing like a geek to them. Halfway through the meal, one of them noticed that Luke hadn’t touched his beer and pointed it out.

“He doesn’t really drink.” Santiago quickly explained. “Someone treated him-”

“Actually, I can.” Luke interrupted, not wanting to appear even more different than he already was compared to all these political science students. He proceeded to take a huge mouthful, nearly choking when it burned a path down his throat.

Santiago shot him a look that clearly communicated his concern about Luke getting drunk. Unfortunately, Luke didn’t seem to read his mind that well, and soon his friends were encouraging Luke to try different types of alcohol after hearing that he’d never tried them before. Santiago was starting to get worried about Luke’s liver at this point.

“You know, for someone who doesn’t drink much, you’ve got a decent tolerance.” One of them looked impressed. 

“I have better liver metabolic function than most people.” Luke informed them.

Santiago’s friends seemed to take it as a challenge, and plied him with more alcohol until Santiago couldn’t stand it any longer and made some pretext for how they had a quiz coming up that they all needed to study for, thereby convincing them to go home.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried, Sandy.” Luke frowned as they headed back to the dorms. He was still walking in a straight line, so all was fine. True, he’d never actually drunk alcohol before, but he was handling it remarkably well.

“Sandy?” Santiago raised a brow at the unfamiliar nickname.

“It’s short for Santiago.” Luke explained. “Clyde said you should have been called Andy since you were born near the Andes. Santiago, Andy, Sandy.”

Now Santiago was positive Luke was at least a little drunk. It was disconcerting because while he hadn’t fallen over nor vomited, the content of his speech was rather… uncharacteristic of him. “Sure, why not? And who says I’m worried?”

“You can’t fool me.” Luke scoffed. “You get a little crease here-” He pointed vaguely at his own forehead, “-whenever you’re worried about something. You’ve had it half the night.”

Santiago tried to smooth out his expression. “I didn’t realise that.”

“I notice lots of things about you.” Luke shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“I just don’t want you to feel sick later because you decided to drink half your weight in alcohol.” Santiago huffed.

“Well, I did, and now your friends think I’m cool.” Luke replied stubbornly. “So it was a good idea.”

Santiago sighed. “I don’t need you to purposely try and be cool for them. You _are_ cool already.” Luke pouted at that, which was unbelievably adorable. “But I appreciate the effort.” Santiago conceded.

They made their way to Luke’s dorm room with little trouble, though Luke was slightly unsteady on his feet when they reached the door. He stood there as if waiting for something to happen.

“Uh, Luke? Aren’t you going to open the door?”

“Can you get my key? It’s in my left pocket.”

Santiago sighed, not knowing why Luke became so needy when he was drunk. He dug into Luke’s pocket to grab the keys, and Luke suddenly jerked away from him. “Are you alright?” He asked with a concerned look.

“I- I’m fine.” Luke stammered and managed to get the door open by himself, and Santiago helped him over to the bed. Luke then began stripping off his clothes to change into his pyjamas, and Santiago pretended not to ogle his best friend’s lean body.

“Whoops.” Luke’s feet got tangled in the pyjama pants and he tripped onto the bed. Santiago managed not to laugh and went to help him. Luke shivered when he felt Santiago’s fingers ghost across his hipbone. 

“There you go. Off to sleep.”

Luke caught Santiago’s hand before the latter could leave. “Thanks for being worried about me.” He said softly, looking more alert all of a sudden. “It’s always nice to know someone cares.”

Santiago smiled back at him and squeezed his hand. “Of course. Now go to sleep, Luke.” He gently pushed him back down on the bed and waited for Luke’s eyes to drift shut and for his breathing to even out before letting go of his hand. “The problem is, I care too much.”


	5. a shock to the heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Darling, if I have learned anything over these years, it’s that relationships are too precious to lose over misunderstandings like this.”

It was the March to April semester break, and Clyde and Rani were walking hand in hand away from 13 Bannerman Road where they had just celebrated Luke’s birthday. It had been a nice quiet party and even now as they took a stroll – it was really too boring for Clyde to send his girlfriend home when she lived across the road – the night air was cool and was altogether romantic.

Hence, Clyde was a little surprised when the first thing Rani said was, “I can’t believe those two haven’t gotten together yet.”

He coughed. “You mean, Luke and Santiago?”

Rani gave him a dry look. “No, I meant Santiago and Sarah Jane. Dummy.” She added fondly. “Didn’t you see the way they kept glancing at each other?”

“Nah, I was too busy looking at you.” Clyde said in an attempt to be mushy, and ducked when she threatened to hit him for being facetious. “I mean, I don’t know. Maybe?”

“It’s so obvious that they like each other. I don’t understand why they haven’t done anything about it!”

“Maybe they’re afraid of ruining their friendship.” Clyde said thoughtfully. “That’s why it took me so long to tell you I was in love with you.” And the more he thought about it, the more he could understand what Luke and Santiago must be feeling, if Rani’s suspicions about them were indeed true.

Rani’s eyes grew a little misty and she squeezed his hand. “Me too, I guess. I’m so glad you did.” She leaned over and kissed him.

\--

Not for nothing was Sarah Jane one of the most intuitive journalists around, and she had drawn the same conclusions as Rani. But being a concerned mother, she’d pulled Luke aside for a conversation one night. “Luke, I have a question for you, and I hope you don’t think I’m being too nosey-”

“Never.” Her son replied charmingly, earning a smile from her.

“-but are you and Santiago…in a relationship?”

Luke frowned. “You mean…”

“Are you two dating?” Sarah Jane blurted out quickly, although she felt a little embarrassed asking this of her son.

“Oh! No, of course not.” Luke shook his head emphatically. “What made you ask?”

Sarah Jane observed her son’s face for a second before replying, “Oh, I was just curious, since you two are so close.”

“We’re just good friends, Mum.” Luke tried to ignore the pang he felt in his chest. “Nothing more.”

Sarah Jane decided to push her luck. “Do you want something more?”

He hesitated for a bit, before deciding that he could depend on his mother for answers. “I- I don’t know, I’m…confused. I’ve never liked anyone romantically before. Sometimes I feel a little strange around him, and then the other day K9 reported higher serotonin and dopamine levels in me.”

“That old romantic.” She shook her head fondly. “My dear boy, it sounds like you do like him.”

“Is this what normal people feel?” Luke sighed. “My friends tell me there’s a difference between having a crush on someone and being in love with them. I’m sure Clani are in love, but when I asked Clyde to explain what it felt like, he just said it was too complicated to put into words. He wasn’t helpful in the least.”

Sarah Jane hated how difficult it could be for Luke to perceive things that normal people took for granted as a part of life. And yet she couldn’t very well tell him how he was feeling, since no one would know but Luke himself. “Well, maybe time will tell whether what you’re feeling for him is temporary or lasting. As long as you’re honest with him, I’m sure everything will be sorted out in the end.”

Neither of them had noticed that the subject of their conversation had been passing by in the hallway and had overheard the first half of their conversation. Santiago’s heart had sunk the moment he heard Luke refer to them as nothing more than ‘just good friends’. It was true, and it sucked. Everyone who claimed that unrequited love was romantic didn’t realise how horrible it actually was.

Then he’d caught Luke talking about being confused, and then going into how he didn’t understand the difference between a crush and love, and decided to stop eavesdropping. It was clear that while there might have been a spark between them that he’d imagined before, it was just a mystery to Luke, who was probably better off just being his usual asexual self.

Santiago returned to his room with an air of gloom about him. He wasn’t as naïve as Luke about matters of the heart, and was almost sure that he was in love with his best friend. However, he bore no illusions about the fact that Luke only regarded him as a platonic friend. If it had been any other guy, he would have tried distancing himself from him until the feelings went away – and they would, he was sure – but it was impossible to stay away from Luke.

“You’ll just have to make yourself get over him, Santiago. He’s just your friend.” He told himself sternly, and went to sleep with that resolution in mind.

\--

It had been a couple of months since that holiday, and now that the cubes had been declared provisionally safe by the UN, and his latest article had been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal, Luke found himself with a lot more free time on his hands to think about things. He’d wrestled with his feelings, consulted Maria and K9 separately, and finally decided to approach Santiago honestly and see how things unfolded. 

They had stayed in Luke’s room to watch a science fiction movie and appreciate what ingenuity there was while still laughing at the obvious inaccuracies. It was a favourite pastime of theirs, and they were both sitting on Luke’s bed watching the movie on his monitor.

Santiago yawned as the end credits began to roll. “I guess I’d better head back now.”

“Actually,” Luke grasped his wrist before he could move, “there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Santiago blinked. Luke’s hand was really warm. “Sure. What’s up?”

Luke’s heart was now beating really quickly. “I’ve been thinking about both of us for a while now, and I think…I might be in love with you.”

Of all the things Santiago had expected Luke to say, this was definitely not one of them. “I- you… _what_?”’

Luke swallowed nervously but soldiered on. “I said, I think I might be in love with you. And I guess I wanted to know how you feel about that.”

“You _think_ you might be in love with me?” Santiago echoed faintly and then registered Luke’s uncertain expression. “But you don’t understand romantic stuff, like, at all! How could you be in love?”

“I…” The conversation wasn’t really heading where Luke had hoped it would. “…I don’t know. I never thought about it until I started feeling different around you.”

Santiago could feel his heart pounding loud in his ears. He desperately wanted to believe that Luke really did return his feelings, but judging by how uncertain the other young man appeared, he doubted it was the case. “You’re just confused, Luke.” He said, in a far more gentle tone now. “You- you simply haven’t had so much close contact with only one person before, and you’re mistaking the closeness for something it isn’t.”

“I don’t think I am.” Luke frowned, wondering why Santiago was so adamant that he was wrong. He was hardly ever wrong. “Maybe I need more evidence.”

Santiago sighed. “There you go, turning it into science-”

Luke moved forward and cut him off mid-sentence with a kiss. Utterly taken aback, Santiago failed to keep his lips shut, allowing Luke to unconsciously deepen the kiss, sending jolts of pleasure through him that shot down to his core. He groaned and stifled the urge to place his hand on the back of Luke’s neck to pull him closer. Instead, he forced himself to wrench away from Luke, who blinked dazedly at him.

“I should go.” Santiago muttered as he got off the bed. “You need some time to clear your head. And when you do, you’ll realise this is all just a misunderstanding. Yes. I- I should go.” He ran out of the room and shut the door behind him quickly. He’d had some physical experience of that nature before, but nothing as intense as that one kiss with Luke. He clenched his fists and tried to calm his raging hormones down.

On the other side of the door, Luke was huddled up in a miserable ball on his bed, wondering where it had all gone wrong. Clearly, Santiago had no similar feelings for him; otherwise he wouldn’t have reacted so violently to the idea. He had obviously made Santiago feel really uncomfortable, even though that kiss had felt like the most wonderful thing he’d ever experienced before.

Despite what Santiago had claimed, Luke was now positive that he was attracted to Santiago in a way that he’d never been attracted to anyone before. And it wasn’t just physical, because Santiago’s rejection of his feelings of him had hurt terribly, and Luke rather felt like crying now.

“Master?” K9 approached him tentatively.

“Oh, K9.” Luke swallowed. “I’ve really made a mess of things, haven’t I?”

There was a pause. “Negative, Master. Everything will soon reach equilibrium again.”

“I really hope so.”

\--

The next few weeks were hellish for Luke as Santiago was clearly avoiding him, and he wasn’t too sure anyway if he actually wanted to see the other young man, since it would only make the rejection even more hurtful. 

Luke threw himself into his research, to the delight of his supervisor, but still texted Santiago once every few days to let him know that he wasn’t going to force his feelings on him, and that he just wanted their friendship to remain intact. Finally, Santiago agreed to meet up with him and said that it would be best if they just forgot that incident and went back to their normal friendship. 

Things fell back into their usual pattern, although there were awkward moments when Luke found himself reaching out to touch Santiago, only to pull away quickly instead. Then the summer holidays came around again, and Santiago took the opportunity to go abroad and visit his parents, leaving Luke behind in London.

Surprisingly, Santiago’s grandmother had managed to see that something was bothering him, and before long she had wormed the story out of him. “I can’t believe you did that to him, babe.” Jo Jones shook her head disappointedly.

“But…”

“Even if he wasn’t absolutely sure about his feelings, it was awfully rude of you to dismiss them like that.” She frowned. “And even after he was honest with you, you weren’t honest with him.”

“What good would it have done?” Santiago retorted helplessly, although he had a sinking feeling that his grandmother might be right.

“Darling, if I have learned anything over these years, it’s that relationships are too precious to lose over misunderstandings like this.” Jo sighed and patted his shoulder. “I think this could be the start of something, if only you dare to be vulnerable and tell him the truth.”

He grimaced. He hated being vulnerable – it left one open to the possibility of heartbreak.

“You never know what life is going to throw at you.” She continued musing. “In a moment, something could happen, you might never see him again, and all you’d be left with is regret.”

Santiago glanced up at her, evidently lost in reminiscing. She was probably right. Damn it.

\--

It was July, and Santiago had returned and been extra friendly to Luke, as if to make up for acting like a douche in the past. They’d gone to the cinema to watch a young adult dystopian film – it seemed to be the trend lately – and had returned to Bannerman Road for a late dinner.

“I thought that blond actor was rather good-looking, don’t you?” Luke mentioned casually. 

Santiago blinked and ignored the flare of jealousy he suddenly felt. The actor in question had indeed been rather cute, but it was still terrible to hear Luke mention it. “Sure.”

“Alien activity detected!” K9 suddenly reported.

“I wonder if- oh my.” Luke stopped talking and stared in disbelief at one of the cubes lying on his desk. It had opened up a face and when Luke reached over to touch it, several tiny sharp needle-like protrusions shot up and pierced his wrist. “Ow!”

“Are you alright?” Santiago grabbed Luke’s delicate wrist and examined it, not seeing the slight blush on Luke’s cheeks. “What on earth was that cube doing?”

They looked at the cube again and saw an unmistakeable electrocardiogram signal on it. “It must have taken my pulse rate.” Luke gaped. 

Only then did they realise that another cube had been floating and somehow trawling through the internet on Luke’s laptop, and that another one was currently bouncing around the corridor. “This makes no sense!” Santiago didn’t know where to look. “They’re quiet for a year, and then suddenly they come alive and start doing different things?”

Luke dashed to his window and looked outside to see several cubes all doing different things, whether it was playing certain songs, spraying fire or attacking poor cyclists. Shrieks could be heard all over the place as people realised the cubes they had unsuspectingly left in their homes had suddenly revealed their alien nature.

Santiago managed to catch the cubes in Luke’s room and secure them in a container. Luke quickly called to check with Sarah Jane about what was happening, while they ran up to the attic to consult Mr Smith. The alien supercomputer informed them that news reports were saying that all the cubes had activated simultaneously, and some had caused injuries around the world. It was chaotic, and it took some more phone calls for them to ascertain that their friends and family hadn’t suffered any serious injury either.

“Look, they’re alien, right?” Santiago bit his lip. “This is an invasion, and I say we gather all the ones we can and chuck them in some secure container.”

“Great, then we can observe them and figure out what their motive is.” Luke nodded. “I’ll tell Clani to do the same, although it’ll probably take them a while to reach here.”

With that, they went out on the streets and to collect all the cubes they could find. By the time they returned, they got Mr Smith and K9 working together to scan the cubes. But to their surprise, the cubes all simultaneously ceased their activity. It hadn’t given Mr Smith enough time to ascertain if the cubes were receiving signals from a traceable source.

“Why would they be active for less than an hour and then suddenly switch off?” Santiago cried in frustration.

“Could they have been sent just to observe us and now they’re done?” Luke thought aloud.

“Couldn’t they have done that much earlier?” Santiago frowned. “Why wait a year?”

“Maybe because that’s how long they thought it would take to infiltrate every part of Earth.” Luke shrugged. 

“I still think we should call UNIT to take these in.” Santiago argued. “We don’t know if they’re safe.”

“But we need to observe them.” Luke replied stubbornly. “Maybe we’d be able to find out who’s responsible for all this, and whether the world needs saving.”

They discussed this for a while more but were interrupted by a sudden power outage. Thankfully, Mr Smith and K9 were still operational, but in the dark, it was clear that all the cubes they had had the number seven on their faces. And before they could figure out what that meant, the numbers all changed to six – unmistakeably a countdown.

“Maybe they’re bombs.” Santiago hazarded. “Mr Smith, can you trace the signal back to a central location?”

“Tracing the signal.” Mr Smith intoned. “Luke, Santiago, it appears that the government calls for everyone to dispose of the cubes and stay away from them because they are dangerous.”

“Right, that’s it.” Santiago decided and stuffed the cubes back into a larger box. “I’m dumping them outside.”

“No, you can’t.” Luke snatched the nearest one. “We need to see what happens when it reaches zero.”

“What if it reaches zero and then explodes in our faces?” Santiago demanded. “We’ve got about twenty of these things – do you know how big an explosion that would be?”

“You don’t know that.” Luke shook his head firmly. “Take the rest out if you must, but I’m keeping this one.”

Santiago stared at him and growled in frustration. “Fine, have it your way.” He kept the remaining ones and went to dispose the box in a dump further down the road, noticing other neighbours doing the same thing.

By the time he’d returned to the house, he decided to go back up to the attic to see how Luke was doing. The cubes had probably reached zero by now, and he sincerely hoped that Luke had had the sense to wear some sort of protective gear. He opened the attic door to see Luke slumped on the ground, unconscious.

“Luke!” The strangled cry ripped from his throat as he rushed over to his best friend. “What happened?”

“News reports of millions of cardiac arrests and heart failure cases.” Mr Smith informed him.

“Master Luke’s heart is not beating.” K9 reported in alarm. “The electric shock has disrupted sinoatrial node function.”

Santiago turned pale. “That’s not possible.” He placed shaky fingers to Luke’s neck but was unable to feel the carotid pulse. “Oh my God.” He began commencing chest compressions, suddenly grateful that he’d taken that course in basic cardiac life support.

“Call an ambulance, Mr Smith!” He roared, only to have the supercomputer reply him seconds later that all hospital lines were busy due to the hundreds of thousands of cardiac arrests occurring all over England.

“Call Sarah Jane, then!” Unfortunately, Sarah Jane didn’t pick up her phone, and Santiago fervently hoped that she wasn’t dead.

“Wake up, Luke!” He begged as his arms continued pumping on Luke’s chest in an attempt to maintain blood flow. He didn’t hesitate to fuse his lips to Luke’s to blow air into the latter’s chest before resuming the compressions.

“Master Luke requires an electric shock to return his cardiac rhythm to normal.” K9 tried to explain. “No other alternative.”

“Do we have a defibrillator in the house?” Santiago asked between breaths, refusing to acknowledge how tired he was getting. It was ridiculously hard to speak and do CPR at the same time, and he didn’t know what would happen if Luke’s heart didn’t get shocked soon.

“Negative, Master.” K9 reported. “My systems should be able to replicate a similar shock. Systems calibrating.” The sound of whirring could be heard from the robot dog.

Santiago continued with the chest compressions, ignoring the burn of lactic acid in his arms as he willed Luke’s brain cells to stay alive while K9 attempted to turn himself into a defibrillator. Then finally, K9 wheeled over and extended his nose probe to Luke’s bared chest. “Please move aside, Master.”

Santiago removed his hands from Luke’s skin and moved back a little. K9’s probe made contact with Luke’s chest and sent a charge down. For one agonizing moment, Santiago thought it had failed. But then Luke’s eyes flew open and he gasped for breath. 

“You did it, K9!” Santiago exulted and rubbed the metal dog’s head.

“Affirmative.” K9 sounded almost gleeful. “Welcome back, Master Luke.”

“What happened?” Luke asked dazedly, but was cut off by a big bundle of Santiago hugging the breath out of him.

“You’re alive.” Santiago mumbled into Luke’s shoulder. “I can’t believe you’re alive.”

Luke’s arms automatically went around Santiago’s back. “Yes, I am. What happened?”

“The cubes took the electrical power from the buildings they were in and used it to send pure electrical surges into the hearts of the nearest humans about ten minutes ago. An estimated one third of the population was affected and went into cardiac arrest, including you, Luke.” Mr Smith explained.

Santiago raised his head briefly to locate the culprit lying innocently next to Luke, and with one good swing, lobbed the cube out of the window. “I did CPR until K9 managed to restart your heart.” He muttered. “Thank God you’re alive.”

“I have detected seven locations of transmission to the cubes. It is likely that the signal originates from a ship in outer space which has used wormholes in these seven locations.” Mr Smith continued talking, but it was all gibberish to Luke at the moment.

“You saved my life.” Luke whispered to Santiago, who drew back slightly and stared at him.

“No, K9 saved your life.” Santiago explained patiently, hoping that Luke’s brain function hadn’t been impaired by a lack of oxygen. “He did some electric shock thing with his probe-”

“Yes, thank you, K9.” Luke interrupted him.

“You are welcome, Master Luke.”

“But you kept me alive until then, Santiago.” Luke insisted.

“Well, of course I had to.” Santiago said seriously. “I couldn’t- I couldn’t just let you d-die.” His voice trembled and he realised he was on the brink of tears, after that emotionally harrowing and physically stressful situation. “I thought you were going to d-die, before I got to tell you-”

“Tell me what?” Luke asked gently. It felt awfully nice to be holding on to Santiago like this.

“Um…” Santiago reluctantly withdrew from the hug. “…to tell you that I love you.” As Luke looked at him with uncertainty and hope in his eyes, Santiago felt a strange warmth enveloping his soul. “I’ve been stupidly in love with you for the longest time, and I didn’t tell you because I was afraid it would ruin our friendship. And when you told me you were in love with me, I didn’t think it was possible because I didn’t think you even knew what romantic love was, and I didn’t want to lead myself on and then later have to pick myself up after you realised you were just confused.”

“I love you.” Luke said firmly, catching hold of Santiago’s hands as if he was afraid the other young man would change his mind. “I’m sure about that, and you know I’m always right.”

Santiago couldn’t help but laugh at that. “I’m sorry for being such an idiot before, and I promise to make it up to you, if you’ll have me for a boyfriend.”

Luke beamed and shyly pecked him on the cheek. “Mum will be pleased.”

“Oh, I forgot!” Santiago suddenly gasped. “Sarah Jane! She didn’t answer her phone, and I don’t know if the cube shocked her heart as well.”

“The cubes were re-configured to send an electric shock to restart the hearts of people around the world.” Mr Smith reported. “The hospitals are now dealing with the victims of the attack who mostly seem to have recovered.”

“It must have been the Doctor.” Luke smiled and quickly dialled his mother’s number. “Mum? Oh, thank goodness you’re alright! Yes, I’m fine. Santiago and K9 saved me. Mr Smith says everything’s gone back to normal. Come home and have a good rest. Yes, I’ll call Clyde and Rani. Okay, see you.”

Santiago had already started calling Clyde’s mobile phone, and was relieved when his friend picked up and started rambling on about the entire situation that had just transpired. “Right, see you back here in a while. Bye.” He looked at Luke. “They’re both alright. They stayed away from the cubes, and were just trying to help the people around them.”

Luke breathed a sigh of relief and then realised that the two of them were still sitting on the floor. “I suppose we should go and check on the neighbours, especially Mr and Mrs Chandra. Even though Rani swore she got rid of all the cubes in her house, you never know what Mrs Chandra might have brought home.”

He got to his feet and then pulled Santiago up. “Before we go, I just need to do one thing.” Santiago declared, and bent his head down slightly to give Luke the most enthusiastic kiss of his life. Luke’s knees nearly gave way, and he found himself clutching onto Santiago’s shirt for dear life, feeling like he was being devoured by the other young man.

They finally broke apart, both breathing heavily as Santiago rested his forehead against Luke’s in a strangely intimate manner. “I love you.” He repeated with a grin. “Now we can go check on the neighbours.”

Luke stared at him dumbly for a moment, too befuddled by the kiss to say anything intelligent for once.

Santiago blinked and then suddenly, a look of concern came upon his face. “Are you okay, Luke? Maybe you should go and rest. I don’t know whether you might have some lasting effects of the cardiac arrest. Maybe we should take you to the hospital, but Mr Smith said the hospitals are fully occupied now-”

“I think I could use a lie-down.” Luke agreed, taking hold of Santiago’s hand and walking out of the attic. “Let’s leave saving the world to another day.” And with that, he pulled Santiago along to his room for a well-earned rest. It wasn’t the first time they’d shared a bed, and it wouldn’t be their last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this story, and special thanks to everyone who gave kudos and commented! If you feel so inspired, please contribute to this pairing by writing your own fanfiction about them!


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